Prof Niaz Ahmed Khan has been appointed as the vice-chancellor of Dhaka University.

President Mohammed Shahabuddin, also the chancellor of the university, made the appointment, sources at the Bangabhaban confirmed The Daily Star yesterday.

He will replace Professor Dr ASM Maksud Kamal, who resigned from the post on August 10.

He was previously the pro-vice chancellor of Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) and the former chairman of the Department of Development Studies at DU.

Prof Niaz, who will be 30th VC of DU, has a distinguished career in academia and development management. He holds a PhD with distinction from the University of Wales Swansea and has earned numerous scholarships, including the UK Commonwealth Scholarship, according to IUB website.

He studied public (forest) policy studies at University of Oxford and natural resource management at Asian Institute of Technology.

Prof Niaz also served as the Bangladesh Country Representative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).