New directors appointed to Iit-kanpur, BHU, Guwahati, Dhanbad, Jodhpur, Goa

THE UNION Ministry of Education on Thursday appointed new directors to six IITS across the country. Manindra Agrawal, Sukumar Mishra, Avinash Agarwal, Dr Devendra Jalihal, Dhirendra S Katti and Amit Patra will take up the position of directors at Iit-kanpur, Dhanbad, Jodhpur, Guwahati, Goa and IIT-BHU, respectively.

Agrawal, the new Iit-kanpur director, has been a professor at department of computer science and engineering at the same institutesince1996.histeachingareas include algorithms, complexity theory, computational number theory and algebra and cryptography. His notable achievements include a Padma Shri in 2013; he was also a Humboldtfellowattheuniversity of Ulm in Germany, 1995-96.

Mishra, who has been appointed as director, Iit-dhanbad, was a professor in the department of electrical engineering at Iit-delhi. He is currently serving as dean, research and external engagement, Iit-delhi-abu Dhabi campus. He also worked as associate dean, R&D of Iitdelhi from March 1, 2020 to March 31, 2023.

Avinash Agarwal, who has been appointed to Iit-jodhpur, one of the new generation IITS, was serving as a professor at the department of mechanical engineering in Iit-kanpur.

Jalihal, new Iit-guwahati director, was serving as a professor at Iit-madras in the department of electrical engineering. As per his profile, his research interests include signal processing and wireless communication. He has been at Iit-madras since 2006.

Katti was a professor at Iitkanpur’s biological sciences and bioengineering department; he will now serve as director at IITGOA. He received his PH.D from University of Mumbai and his post-doctoral training from

Drexel University, USA. He served as an assistant professor (research track) at Drexel University and then as assistant professor (tenure track) at University of Virginia before joining the BSBE department in April, 2004.

Patra, who was serving as the Deputy Director at IIT Kharagpur has now been appointed as Director at IIT BHU. He received the B.tech., M.tech. and PH.D. degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 1984, 1986 and 1990 respectively. He joined the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 1987 as a faculty member.