Max Lu is non-executive director at NPL.
Max took up his current position of President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Surrey in April 2016. His responsibility is to lead the University and define its academic direction and strategy. He is also responsible for ensuring that it is well-managed, and he has a first-rate team of colleagues who work with him to ensure the success of the University.
Previously, he was Provost and Senior Vice-President at the University of Queensland, Australia, and had held academic and leadership positions there from 1994 to 2016. Professor Lu lectured at Nanyang Technological University from 1991 to 1994, rising from senior lecturer to chair professor. He founded the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Functional Nanomaterials and served as its inaugural director for eight years. As a Thomson Reuters double Highly Cited Researcher in both Materials Science and Chemistry, he has published over 500 journal papers on nanomaterials and is co-inventor of more than 20 granted international patents.
He has been honoured with numerous awards, including Orica Award, RK Murphy Medal, Le Fevre Prize, ExxonMobil Award, China International Science and Technology Award, Japan Chemical Society Lecture Award, Chemeca Medal, and P V Danckwerts Lecture. He was also recently honoured with a Medal of the Order of Australia (Officer in the General Division) for his distinguished service to education and international research in the field of materials chemistry and nanotechnology, to engineering, and to Australia-China relations. He was awarded the Australian Research Council (ARC) Federation Fellowship twice, respectively, in 2003 and 2008.
Professor Lu has served on many government committees and advisory boards, including those under the Australian Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council, ARC College of Experts, Australian Synchrotron, Stem Cells Australia. He is Fellow of IChemE, Royal Society of Chemistry, Australian Academy of Science, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and World Academy of Science.