Prof R Velraj is vice-chancellor of Anna univ

Prof R Velraj is vice-chancellor of Anna univ

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:11.08.2021

Governor Banwarilal Purohit on Tuesday appointed R Velraj, 56, as vice-chancellor of Anna University. He will hold the post for three years from the date of assuming office. He is an expert in the field of thermal energy who has worked extensively in areas of building cooling applications, micro grid, solar applications and electronic cooling. He has published 193 research papers in indexed journals with H-index 52 and citations more than 10,000. He also guided 33 PhD scholars and has two patents to his credit.

Velraj, who has 33 years of teaching experience, is presently working as a professor at the Institute of Energy Studies, Anna University. He has also worked as director of the Institute of Energy Studies and director of Anna University-FRG Institute for CAD/CAM.

Born in Nagercoil in Kanyakumari district in 1965, he completed his BE (mechanical engineering), ME (energy engineering) and PhD at Anna University. He has executed several projects at university including erecting solar lamps at the College of Engineering, Guindy campus. He was further involved in a project converting the waste from hostels into bioenergy.

Professors from the university said the first major challenge before professor Velraj is filling up more than 30% vacancies at the university's four campuses. "There are more than 300 vacancies notified by the university previous year and not filled due to non-cooperation by the previous state government. Filling up these vacancies with qualified candidates is the most important task before the new vice-chancellor. It will help the university to get better ratings during NAAC assessment and NIRF rankings," a senior professor from the university said.

Secondly, the perception of technical universities needs to be improved. "The university has come out from major scams such as revaluation scam and procurement of mark sheets. In the past three years, the system was cleansed, and the university remained corruption free. The new vice-chancellor needs to build on it and improve the perception of the university globally," another professor said.

FRESH IDEAS: R Velraj receives appointment order from Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit