Prof Govindan Rangarajan appointed as new IISc director

BENGALURU: The governing council of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has formally appointed Prof Govindan Rangarajan as the new director of the institute. He will take charge officially after the incumbent Prof Anurag Kumar vacates office on July 31.
Rangarajan obtained an Integrated M.Sc. (Hons.) degree from the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, and a PhD from the University of Maryland, College Park. He then worked at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, US, before returning to India in 1992. Prior to his current appointment, he was the Chair, division of interdisciplinary research at IISc, comprising 10 departments and centres.
“It is an honour and privilege for me to be appointed as the next Director. The Institute has a glorious 111-year-old legacy of impactful contributions to science and engineering. I will strive to uphold this tradition and take the Institute to even greater heights in the coming years,” Rangarajan said in a statement.
“Outgoing director Kumar, who took charge on August 1, 2014, introduced initiatives to modernise IISc’s administration and infrastructure, improve faculty recruitment, increase support from non-government sources, enable the careers of women researchers in the Institute, and enhance IISc’s visibility abroad,” IISc said in a statement.
In 2018, IISc was also selected as an Institution of Eminence (IoE) by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). “It has been an honour to serve as the director. I congratulate Prof Rangarajan on being appointed as the next director and wish him all success in taking this unique institution to the next level,” Kumar said in a statement.