John Hearn is Chief Executive of the Worldwide Universities Network, and is Vice President (International), responsible for the international engagement and internationalisation, and Professor of Physiology (Medical School) at the University of Sydney. He was awarded his PhD from the Australian National University (ANU) and has served for 5-7 years each in leading research, teaching and administrative positions at the Universities of Edinburgh, London UCL, Wisconsin, ANU and Sydney. He is a senior scientific adviser to WHO and the Australian Government. He has published 190 research papers and edited six books in reproduction and fertility, stem cell biology and biotechnology.  A committed international citizen, he has worked extensively in research capacity development, especially in China, India, Thailand, Kenya and Brazil. He is a Board member of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation and is Chairman of the Board of the Sydney Confucius Institute. He was a member of the OECD Bio-economy 2030 Futures steering group and is an alternate board member on the OECD Programme on Institutional Management in Higher Education.