Anurag Kumar to be new director of IISc

Prof Anurag Kumar, chairman of the Electrical Sciences Division in the Department of Electrical Communication Engineering, will be the new director of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. 

The second director with Engineering background after Satish Dhawan, Kumar assumes office in August, after the present director Padmabhushan P Balaram retires in July 2014, after serving two terms. Dhawan, an aerospace engineer, became director at the age of 42. 

Sources in the Institute said that the name of Prof Kumar was announced by a committee headed by Dr K Kasturirangan, at the meeting of the IISc Council on Saturday. 

The Council, a high-powered committee, comprises 21 members. Members from Tata Trust, Members of Parliament, top bureaucrats, vice-chancellors of various universities and ex-officio members of IISc are part of the Council. It is also headed by Kasturirangan.

After Satish Dhawan, there were five directors - Prof S Ramaseshan, Prof G Padmanabhan, Prof Goverdhan Mehta, Prof CNR Rao and Prof P Balaram, all from science background,” said IISc sources.  

Kumar has several awards and fellowships to his credit, including the Department of Science and Technology’s JC Bose National Fellowship for 2011-2016. He is also an elected Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Science and a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering.

He has authored several research papers and books since 1993. Some of his books include ‘Communication Networking: An Analytical Approach,’ published in 2004 and ‘Wireless Networking,’ published in 2008.

New chief for Council

In another development on Saturday, Prof P Rama Rao, member of the IISc Council, took over as the new chairman of the Council. According to sources, Dr Kasturirangan handed over the charge to him at Saturday’s meeting. Rama Rao is the former vice-chancellor of the University of Hyderabad.