PUDUCHERRY: Gurmeet Singh, Professor of Chemistry in Delhi University, has been appointed as Vice- Chancellor of Pondicherry University. Subodh Kumar Ghildiyal, deputy secretary to the government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, in a letter to the Registrar of the university on Friday, said that the President in his capacity as the visitor of the university has appointed Singh as the Vice-Chancellor. He will hold the post for five years from the date he assumes office or until he attains the age of 70 years, whichever is earlier.
After Chandra Krishnamurty was ousted from the VC post, Pondicherry University has been remaining without a full-fledged VC for nearly one-and- half years . The seniormost professor Anisa Basheer Khan was holding the post as acting Vice-Chancellor.
In his 33 years of career, Singh has served as a faculty and in research. His research interests had been in the field of corrosion chemistry, inhibitor formulations, surface characterization and nano film deposition. He was honoured with the best research paper award by the Electrochemical Society of India (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore) in 1991 and again with the best research paper award of 1992 by SAEST at Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Karaikudi.
Singh is a life member of SAEST, Electrochemical Society of India and a member of Royal Society of Chemistry. He worked as a visiting scientist in the Central Research Institute of Chemistry, Budapest (Hungary) and at Mechanical Engineering Laboratory, Tsukuba (Japan). In addition, he held many administrative positions including the Proctorship of the University of Delhi, post of OSD to carry out duties of the Principal of Deshbandhu College, University of Delhi for about three years, Chief Election Officer and member of higher bodies like executive council .
His work on surface characterization using X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy to supplement the corrosion study results was one of the first. Singh who has received many honours has been recently honoured with Meritorious Contribution award for 2007-08 by the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE), US . Recently he was invited to be a chair professor at Lunghwa University of Science and Technology in Taiwan and was also the special election observer for the State Assembly elections held in West Bengal.