Amit Chakma

Who is Amit Chakma?

Amit Chakma is the tenth president of the University of Western Ontario.

Born in southeastern Bangladesh and a member of the Chakma ethnic minority, he moved away from his tribe to study chemical engineering at Algerian Petroleum Institute in Algeria. In 1977 he graduated at the top of his class. He then moved to Canada and earned an M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of British Columbia.

From 1988 until 1996, he taught chemical engineering at the University of Calgary. In 1996 he moved to the University of Regina as Dean of Engineering. He then served as Regina's Vice President Research from 1999 to 2001. During his time at the University of Regina Dr. Chakma was named to Canada's Top 40 Under 40 list. He became Vice President Academic and Provost at the University of Waterloo in 2001. His research interests are natural gas engineering and petroleum waste management.

On July 1, 2009, Dr. Chakma succeeded Paul Davenport as the University of Western Ontario's President. Having left the University of Waterloo, he has been noted for his service to both the university and the academic and business community of Kitchener-Waterloo. His goal as president of the University of Western Ontario is to position the school among the top 100 universities in the world.