Richard Shand achieved a BSc in Agriculture, 1955, a MSc in Agriculture in 1958 from the University of Sydney and in 1961 his PhD at Iowa State University. From 1966 to 1999 he held the following roles Senior Fellow, Fellow, Senior Research Fellow and Research Fellow at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University. During this time he also held the following roles: Senior Specialist, East West Centre, University of Hawaii 1965; Visiting Economist, Indian Planning Commission, New Delhi, India, 1973-1975; Executive Director, Development Studies Centre, ANU 1977-1979; Visiting Professor, Department of Economics and Agribusiness, University of Pertanian, Serdang, Malaysia 1979-1982; Fellow, Australian-Asian Universities Cooperation Scheme, Malaysia 1979-1982; Research Associate with the Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia 1979-1982; Visiting Professor, Department of Economics, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka 1988-1991; Visiting Professor, Madras School of Economics, Chennai, India 1996-2000; Foundation Executive Director, Australia South Asia Research Centre, RSPAS/APSEM, ANU 1994-1999; Visiting Fellow, Division of Politics and International Relations, RSPAS, ANU 2000-2004