Dalhousie University’s 12th president and vice-chancellor has been appointed.
The new president, Deep Saini, is a scientist who earned his PhD in Plant Physiology from the University of Adelaide in Australia.
He has worked at four different universities in Canada, beginning his academic career at the University of Alberta before becoming a leading researcher in plant biology at the Université de Montréal’s Plant Biology Research Institute.
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He follows Dalhousie’s 11th President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. Richard Florizone, who served from 2013 until 2018.
“I am honoured and humbled by the opportunity,” Dr. Saini said in a press release.
“The university’s singular commitment to its anchor role in the region’s economic and social development is fittingly matched to its lofty national and global aspirations — a balance that I have espoused throughout my career and will form the cornerstone of my leadership at Dal,” he added.
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Saini was born and raised in India and is currently the president of the University of Canberra in Australia.
He’s also multilingual, fluent in English, French and three South Asian languages.
Saini will begin his five-year term on January 1, 2020, and plans are underway for his first campus visit as president-elect in early June.
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