KOCHI: The Chancellor's Chair Scheme intended to elevate Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) to a world ranking university was inaugurated by Vice Chancellor Dr. J. Letha on Tuesday. Inaugurating the scheme, Dr. Letha said that while joining CUSAT as Vice Chancellor she could see that though a lot of research was taking place, there was a lack of proper direction to it.
"The idea of creating the Chancellor's Chair project at a later stage came up from this understanding. Several missions started prior and later, I hope, will catapult CUSAT to the big league of first 200 universities," said Dr. J. Letha, who completes her term on October 19.
The Chancellor's chair is being instituted at a cost of Rs. 2.5 crores out of the cash prize of Rs. 5 crore received by CUSAT as part of the Chancellor's Award for the best university in Kerala for 2016-2017. The Chancellor's Chair is intended to bring academic luminaries, renowned teachers and scientists from universities ranked 200 and above, across the globe, to CUSAT campus for an interaction with the academic community in CUSAT
Dr. Bin Han, Professor, Dept of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Alberta, Canada (World Rank 119) is the first Chancellor's Chair Professor in CUSAT and he will spend almost a month in CUSAT's Mathematics Department. Prof. David M Checkly Jr. , Emeritus Junior Professor, University of California, San Diego (World Rank 31) Prof. Gaurav Sharma. Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Rochester, New York, (World Rank 153) Prof. Katushi Iwama, President and Vice-Chancellor of QUEST University of Canada and Adjunct Professor Dept of Zoology, University of British Columbia (World Rank 119 ) will visit the CUSAT Campus in this academic year itself.
Pro-Vice-Chancellor Dr. P.G. Sankaran presided over Tuesday's function. Registrar Dr. S. David Peter, Dr. P.G. Romeo, Head, Department of Mathematics and Dr. Bin Han, Professor, University of Alberta and Internal Quality Assurance Cell Director Dr. K. Gireesh Kumar spoke.
