HYDERABAD: Vice-chancellor of University of Hyderabad (UoH) Prof Ramakrishna Ramaswamy on Wednesday demitted office and handed over the charge to pro vice-chancellor Prof E Haribabu, according to a release from the varsity.
Taking everyone by surprise, Prof Ramaswamy had announced his resignation on November 24 during an academic council meeting at the varsity. With nearly 18 months to complete his tenure, he had reportedly cited personal reasons and ill-health of a family member as the reason to quit the varsity’s lead administrative position midway.
‘’I came here on the June 1, 2011, and so should have stayed till May 31, 2016. However, that is not to be. I shall be leaving somewhat sooner than that. The reasons for this early departure from the position are purely personal, and I appreciate all those who will respect and protect my privacy on this count,’’ wrote the outgoing V-C on his blog post titled ‘The Last Note’ on Wednesday in ‘’The Unofficial Blog of the V-C, University of Hyderabad.’’
As a message, he added, ‘’The UoH has completed 40 years in 2014, so one is also reasonably secure that ours is a robust system, one that has weathered many storms and one that is strong in its foundations. I am therefore confident that work that is started today will be continued if it is truly in the best interests of the university, and that the best traditions of the university will be upheld.’’
Before joining UoH, Prof Ramaswamy has been associated with Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, since 1986 as a Professor in the School of Physical Sciences as well as the Centre for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics in the School of Computational and Integrative Sciences at JNU.
Earlier, he worked at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Mumbai) and California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena as a post-doctoral fellow. Ramaswamy who holds a Ph.D in chemistry from Princeton University did his BSc (Chemistry) from Loyola College, Chennai and MSc (Chemistry) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.
He is recipient of several prestigious awards, including Indian National Science Academy Medal for Young Scientists, Associateship of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore; Associateship of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, International Fellowship of the Santa Fe Institute and the JC Bose Fellowship of the DST.
He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, and the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, Trieste.