The Mesbahi family flew to New Zealand with the shadow of coronavirus chasing just a step behind.
It was the kind of beginning you simply couldn’t make up for Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington’s incoming Pro Vice-Chancellor of Science, Engineering, Architecture and Design Innovation, Professor Ehsan Mesbahi.
Until a few months ago, Professor Mesbahi was Vice Principal and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise/Academic) at the University of the West of Scotland in Glasgow.
Professor Mesbahi has yet to see his office on the Kelburn campus. Instead he has been experiencing Covid-19 lockdown in his Khandallah home with wife Ana Paula, daughter Maia (11) and son Dario (8).
Regular walks to the top of Mt Kaukau have been an escape they’ve all enjoyed, allowing them to take in the views of Wellington.
He says it was a surreal relocation to New Zealand.
With every take-off on the trip over, airport runway lights were literally being switched off behind them.
“We flew from Glasgow to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Singapore, Singapore to Melbourne, Melbourne to Wellington. And every airport we left, it was like a domino effect, they closed down. It was following us.
“We finished self-isolating 24 hours before lockdown… We bought a car for my wife, we rented a house, we moved 14 suitcases and we bought a washing machine and a TV, and we only just had gas and electricity sorted by five o’clock in the afternoon on the first night of lockdown.”
Working from home
For an extrovert, being forced to work from home at the beginning of a new and wide-ranging job has been “torture”.
“I am desperate to get in there; I’m running a faculty with hundreds of millions of dollars turnover from my bedroom and with only two-dimensional views of my colleagues.
“I sit on this chair from eight o’clock in the morning to six o’clock in the evening. I am running an average of nine or ten meetings a day. I have been introduced to many different corners of the University without physically being there.
“I feel I am doing well, considering the circumstances. I am full of energy. But I’m desperate to get to know people better, desperate to know how everything works. I’ve already learned a lot of good things about the University and can see plenty of opportunities.”
The back story
Professor Mesbahi, 56, was born in Iran.
“After a brief introduction to life in London in my early teens, I moved to India, to Kolkata and Mumbai, and did my first degree in marine engineering in India. Then I started sailing on ships and, because I had done a good job on board, the company sponsored me to go to Newcastle University.
“I did my Master’s in marine engineering there, sailed on ships again, did another good job and then, after I received the Stanley Gray Fellowship, the UK Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals sponsored me to do my PhD. In my second year I was appointed as a full-time lecturer at Newcastle and that’s when everything started for me in academia.”
Professor Mesbahi completed his PhD, on modelling and control of engineering systems using artificial intelligence, in 2000.
“I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be. I was selected for Newcastle University’s Future Leaders Programme in 2003 and I got my professorship in 2006. At the same time, I started establishing international partnerships, with particular attention to Singapore, China and India, and all of that led to the establishment of a branch campus of Newcastle University in Singapore in 2011, of which I was the first dean and founding chief executive officer.”
He credits his late father, Abbas Mesbahi, for equipping him well for his university career.
“Half of my brain is an academic and the other half is a businessman. I owe that to my dad – he was a self-made millionaire in national and international trade. I learnt a lot from him. So I gradually moved towards leadership and management roles in academia with a full understanding of business models, cashflow analysis and all that.”
The broad role of a university
Universities have to look beyond “research for the sake of research and teaching for the sake of teaching” if they want to stay relevant to society and their communities, he says.
“There’s now a whole philosophy of ‘research with a purpose’ and ‘excellence with relevance’. Everything we do needs to contribute to addressing global and national challenges and building a better world.
“We can build our industry-driven, end-user driven, application-driven, ‘mission-driven’ research, where research and teaching meet the demands of society, industry and government. We can—and should—diversify and do more.”
Breaking down traditional subject barriers can also help boost research impact, he says. “I am a multi-disciplinarian, a trait that was not very much welcomed a few decades ago in old-fashioned higher education institutions. You could hardly publish a multidisciplinary paper in a journal, but that trend has now changed for the better.
“I believe you can get the highest impact out of your research if you try to do it holistically, across disciplines, and with consideration of how science, society and technology interact.
“I did a lot of homework on Victoria University of Wellington before we left, and I saw an abundance of talent, an abundance of fantastic people in many different areas. It’s a bit of a rough diamond. I see my role as shaping it and shining it.
“Once we get through this difficult period of a pandemic, we’ll have a new mindset, a new way of operating, new ways of engaging with each other and the local and global partners and industries and societies we serve. And we should cherish the chance to bolster our academic excellence with new purpose and relevance.”
Life at home
Every evening, after ten hours in the hot seat, Professor Mesbahi makes his way to the kitchen for his next task of the day.
“I am a keen chef–I cook for the family, my wife would probably say this is one of the reasons why she married me. And I cook many different types of food–Chinese, Indian, Italian, Persian. Anything you can imagine.
“One thing my wife complains about is that every time I make the same food, I cook it differently and it tastes different. She hates that. She says, ‘can you keep the same recipe?’. But I can’t.”
The Mesbahis enjoy Marvel movies–they each have nicknames, with Professor Mesbahi known by his family as “Iron Man” from The Avengers.
“We also like Star Wars. Ana and I also love a series called Outlander, and The Crown.”
How about reading preferences?
“It has been a long time since I read fiction. I am now reading a book called A Beautiful Constraint. It is amazing—how to transform your limitations into advantages. Another hobby is a love of Lego. I make Lego robots and Lego Technic, and my children also love that. We brought all our Lego with us, and we have a lot of it.”
Professor Mesbahi has not had the opportunity to find a favourite café on campus yet. Anyway, he is more of a tea drinker, having grown up in India.
He has been struck by the leadership of the New Zealand Government in fighting Covid-19.
“And by the sense of family and community, a sense of social caring and looking after each other. We couldn’t have imagined the way we’d be welcomed when we wanted to connect our internet, or gas and electricity… Everybody was willing to help. It was amazing and I think people who live in this environment do not appreciate it.”
Citizens of the world
Professor Mesbahi had never been to New Zealand before spending a week in Wellington for his interviews at the University.
“Then later I came here for a couple of weeks with my family, just to test the water. This time when we arrived it was obviously very different—everything was closed down.”
He says he is proud of his children, who never complain about their relocations and long-haul travels. They have taken lockdown in their stride.
“They have inherited agility and resilience from their parents. They embrace and celebrate life the way it comes.
“My eldest daughter, Ghazal, is Swedish and lives in Stockholm. My second daughter was born in Newcastle, so she is a Geordie lass. My son is Singaporean.
“My wife Ana is Portuguese and a naval architect. She was an academic at Newcastle and at Strathclyde University (Glasgow), with expertise in drilling engineering. She can practically design a ship in a few seconds.
“We are a somewhat international family, very adventurous and moveable, and we are proud of it. If somebody asks, ‘where are you guys from?’ I find it very difficult to answer, unless they are prepared to settle in for a long story.
“If you draw the lines of my travel–from Tehran to London, London to India, India to Newcastle, then Newcastle to Singapore, then Singapore to Glasgow, then Glasgow to Wellington, it is a zig-zag line that is getting longer and longer.
“I love that. I always told my wife we will one day end up in the Southern Hemisphere. But New Zealand is much better than we imagined.”