NEW DELHI: St Stephen’s College will witness a historic transition on June 1, when Professor Susan Elias takes charge as its first woman principal. Her appointment marks the first time a woman will lead the institution in its 145-year-old history.
The decision was announced through an official notice by the college on Tuesday. Founded in 1881, St Stephen’s College is among the oldest and one of the most reputed colleges under Delhi university.
Professor Elias succeeds John Varghese, whose tenure was marked by tensions between the college administration and the university, along with opposition from sections of teaching staff. Just this week, teachers from the physics department approached the Delhi High Court and secured a stay against recent appointments made under the outgoing principal’s administration.
An engineer by training, Elias brings with her decades of academic and administrative experience. According to her LinkedIn profile, she holds a BTech in Computer Science Engineering from University of Madras and completed her Master’s and PhD in Multimedia Technology from Anna University. She was also a postdoctoral fellow at IIT-Madras.
Her academic career began as a lecturer at Dr MGR Engineering College in Chennai. She later spent 19 years as a professor and head of department at Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering. Elias also served in senior academic roles at Vellore Institute of Technology, including dean of School of Electronics Engineering and deputy director of Centre for Advanced Data Sciences.
Most recently, she served as pro-vice chancellor at Chandigarh university and headed Digital Health and Bio-Innovations Centre at Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science.