Ian McArthur completed a PhD at Harvard University in supersymmetric quantum field theory. His first postdoctoral fellowship was in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) at the University of Cambridge. This was followed by a postdoctoral position in the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Karlsruhe with Professor Julius Wess, and an Assistant Professorship at the II Institute of Theoretical Physics at Hamburg University. Ian McArthur served as the Head of the School of Physics at UWA for 18 years beginning in 2000. He was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship whilst at UWA, undertaken at the University of Munich (Ludwig Maximilians University).