Professors Parveen Yaqoob and Dominik Zaum appointed PVC Research & Innovation

Wednesday, 31 January 2018

Professors Parveen Yaqoob and Dominik Zaum have been appointed, in a job-share arrangement, as the University’s new Pro-Vice-Chancellors for Research and Innovation.

Their appointment follows a competitive process that began in November and was overseen by the Chair of the University Council – our governing body – Dr Paul Preston.

Parveen currently heads the School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy while Dominik is the Research Dean for Prosperity and Resilience.

They will start in their new role in a job-sharing capacity on 1 August 2018 and will be the first members of the University Executive Board to operate in this way.

Sir David Bell, Vice-Chancellor, said: “We set out to recruit the best candidate and I am delighted that in Parveen and Dominik, we have two excellent colleagues to take up the role of Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation. Both are dynamic and able leaders who understand the University well. They will provide excellent leadership in research and innovation, as well as make a powerful contribution to the University Executive Board.

Parveen and Dominik said they were delighted to be part of a pioneering job-share partnership. “This job-share will allow us to provide joint strategic leadership in research, whilst maintaining our individual research profiles,” they said. “We look forward to working with the Research Deans, Research Division Leaders, and our professional research support towards a strong REF submission in 2021 and to jointly lead the university’s engagement with a changing research and innovation landscape”.

Experienced academics

Parveen has been working in the area of diet, immunity and inflammation for 27 years.

Graduating with a BA in Physiological Sciences and a DPhil in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford, she worked briefly at the Institute of Human Nutrition at the University of Southampton, before joining us as a Lecturer in Nutrition in 1998.

She has a particular interest in the effects of dietary fatty acids and pre- and probiotics on immune function and in the effects of dietary fatty acids on inflammation and vascular function in the context of cardiovascular disease. She is currently a member of the Steering Group of the BBSRC’s Diet and Health Research Industry Club and a Fellow of the Association for Nutrition.

Dominik specialises in governance, conflict and security. Following a BA in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (2000) and an MPhil in International Relations (2002), he completed his DPhil in International Relations at the University of Oxford in 2005.

He took up a Rose Research Fellow in International Relations at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, in 2004, and joined our Department of Politics and International Relations in 2006.

Dominik served as Head of the School of Politics, Economics, and International Relations from 2014 to 2015. From 2011 to 2015, he was a Senior Research Fellow in Conflict and Fragility at the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).