Professor Sabyasachi Bhattacharya of Mumbai's Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) will be the new Vice-Chancellor of Kolkata's Presidency University, official sources said today.
The physicist, also a former director of the TIFR, completed his BSc at the Presidency College in 1970 and would return to his alma mater as its Vice-Chancellor.
However, Prof Bhattacharya's date of joining has not been finalised, they said.
Outgoing Vice-Chancellor Malabika Sarkar's term had ended on August 15 last year as she turned 65. She, however, was granted regular extensions by the Mamata Banerjee-led government, which was unable to find a suitable successor.
The search committee, set up by the state, comprising of UGC chairman Ved Prakash, Delhi University's Nayanjot Lahiri and Harvard University's Gardiner professor of history Sugata Bose suggested Prof Bhattacharya's name, which was approved by Governor M K Narayanan, the chancellor of all the state universities.
Prof Bhattacharya received his MSc from the University of Delhi and his PhD from Northwestern University. He has served on the scientific advisory committee to the Union cabinet, the Basic Sciences and the Mega-sciences committees of the Planning Commission and the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences of the Department of Atomic Energy.
