Banaras Hindu University. (Express Photo by Anand Singh/File)
The Union government on Friday appointed Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) professor Rakesh Bhatnagar as the new Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University (BHU).
Bhatnagar, a professor of biotechnology at JNU, succeeds G C Tripathi, who retired in November last year. Confirming the development, BHU media officer Rajesh Singh told The Indian Express that the university was informed of the appointment late on Friday evening.
President Ram Nath Kovind approved Bhatnagar’s candidature out of a panel of three finalists that was forwarded by the search-cum-selection committee headed by economist Vijay Kelkar. Scientist Ramakrishna Ramaswamy, also of JNU, and Devendra Kumar Gupta, a pediatric surgeon at AIIMS, were the other two candidates in the running.
Bhatnagar has been teaching at JNU for two decades and his areas of interest include molecular biology of infectious diseases, recombinant vaccine development and programmed cell death in prokaryotes. He is a JC Bose National Fellow and has won the ICMR award for developing a recombinant vaccine against anthrax. In 2016, he was given the Visitor’s Award in the innovation category. He was V-C of Kumaon University from 2012 to 2013. He has at least three patents in his name.
BHU had been without a regular V-C ever since Tripathi went on leave in October 2017, just two months before his retirement. Tripathi was at the centre of a firestorm over his alleged mishandling of student protests against an incident of molestation on campus.