Prof. Madhavan Mukund has been appointed as the director of Chennai Mathematical Institute. He will take over from Rajeeva Karandikar on May 1. Mr. Karandikar has served the institute as director for 10 years.
Mr. Mukund, who graduated with a B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and Ph.D from Aarhus University, Denmark in Computer Science, has been associated with the Institute, a deemed to be university, since 1989 and served as Dean of Studies from 2011 and deputy director from 2019.
He is currently the director of the International Research Laboratory in Computer Sciences set up at CMI by the French National Centre for Scientific Research and is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences.
“CMI’s global standing in mathematics, computing and physics is largely because of the robust research-driven teaching model, world class faculty and quality of students. At a time when mathematics and computing are transforming every facet of our lives, I am quite excited about the opportunities for CMI to set benchmarks in teaching, research and industry-sponsored consultancy to make a meaningful impact on society,” Mr. Mukund said.
Governing Council
The institute has expanded its governing council by inducting three new members - Manindra Agrawal from IIT Kanpur; V. Kumar Murty, from Fields Institute, Canada; and V. Srinivas, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.
Mr. Agrawal, who worked on the national supermodel for COVID-19 is a computer scientist and Clay Research Awardee. He has served as deputy director of IIT Kanpur and worked on National Blockchain project and cybersecurity for critical infrastructure.
Mr. Murty, director of Fields Institute, is a number theorist and algebraic geometer at the University of Toronto. His interests are in application domains such as cryptography, information security and mathematical modelling. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a foreign fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (India).
Mr. Srinivas, chairman of the National Board for Higher Mathematics, a mathematician specialising in algebraic geometry, has served as professor at TIFR, Mumbai and won the Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Prize and TWAS (The World Academy of Sciences) prize.