Amitabh Mattoo

Who is Amitabh Mattoo?

Professor Amitabh Mattoo is one of India's leading thinkers and writers on international relations. He is currently the inaugural Director of the Australia India Institute and Professor of International Relations at the University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Amitabh Mattoo is widely regarded as the foremost Indian intellectual seeking to build peace in the South Asian region. He Co-chairs the Chaophraya Track II Dialogue with Pakistan's peace activist, and former Pakistan Ambassador to Washington DC, Sherry Rehman.

He is on leave from New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University where he serves as a Professor of Disarmament Studies at the School of International Studies. Mattoo has been a Member of the National Knowledge Commission, a high-level advisory group to the Prime Minister of India, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jammu.

Mattoo is also President of the Indian Association of International Studies. From November 2002 until early December 2008, he was the youngest ever Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jammu, and among the youngest Vice Chancellors in the history of India. Only Shyama Prasad Mukerjee was a younger Vice Chancellor, when he became VC of Calcutta University in 1934 at the age of 33.