IIT Guwahati appoints new director

Guwahati: Professor Devendra Jalihal has been appointed as the Director of IIT Guwahati, succeeding Professor Rajeev Ahuja, who held the position since November 2023, the institute confirmed on Wednesday. 

Jalihal earned his BTech (Hons) from IIT Kharagpur in 1983 and completed his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Duke University, Durham, USA, in 1992. He joined the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT Madras in 1994 and served as the Head of the Department (HoD) from 2016 to 2019. Before assuming his role at IIT Guwahati, Jalihal chaired the Centre for Outreach and Digital Education at IIT Madras, overseeing all educational outreach activities of the institute.

"Jalihal has a strong emphasis on translational research to bridge the gap between academia and industry, ultimately fostering tangible societal impact and sustainable development", IIT-Guwahati said, adding that it is anticipating "multi-faceted growth and development under his guidance."

IIT Guwahati is ranked consistently among the top 10 by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) and has a high research citation rank of 32 in QS world rankings.

It has eleven departments, nine interdisciplinary academic centers, and five schools covering all major engineering, science, healthcare, management, and humanities disciplines. The institute offers BTech, BDes, BSc (Hons), MA, MDes, MTech, MSc, MS(R), MBA, and PhD programs. 

It has been ranked sixth in the SDG 7 (Affordable and clean energy) globally in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings 2023 and is the only academic institution in India that occupied a place among the top 100 world universities. under 50 years of age, ranked by London-based Times Higher Education (THE) in 2014.

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