IIT Guwahati director TG Seetharam has been appointed as the chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
According to a government notification dated November 17, he will serve as the council chief for three years or until he attains the age of 65, whichever is earlier.
Sitharam will take over from UGC chairman Jagadesh Kumar, who was holding interim charge of the AICTE chairman post after Anil Sahasrabuddhe was released from his duties on September 1, 2021, upon turning 65 years old.
His appointment comes at a time when the Ministry of Education is putting final touches to a Bill that intends to merge the AICTE and the University Grants Commission into a super regulator called the Higher Education Commission of India.
Professor Sitharam is a member of Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. He has been serving as the IIT Guwahati Director and a Senior Professor in Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore and served IISc for more than 27 years.
Professor Sitharam’s appointment creates a vacancy at IIT Guwahati since his term as director was only set to expire in July 2024.Earlier, he was a chair professor in the area of Energy and Mechanical Sciences at IISc. His research interests include rock mechanics and rock engineering, geotechnical earthquake engineering and earth dams and tailing ponds.
After obtaining his Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering from Mysore University, Professor Sitharam went on to do his Masters in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Science (1986) and PhD in Civil Engineering from University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada (1991).
He worked as a lecturer at University of Waterloo soon after his PhD and did his post-doctoral at Center for earth sciences and engineering at University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA during 1991-94. He has served as a visiting or honorary professor at many universities in countries including Japan, Canada, USA, Hongkong, Australia and Republic of China.
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