A. Seshadri Sekhar, professor and head of the department of mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, will be the new Director of IIT-Palakkad, following President Droupadi Murmu’s approval of the recommendation by the Ministry of Education to appoint new directors to eight IITs in the country.
The five-year tenure of outgoing Director P.B. Sunil Kumar ended a few months ago, and he was on extension till the appointment of the new director on Monday, said sources.
Mr. Sekhar received his BE degree from the College of Engineering, Andhra University; ME from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru; and Ph.D from IIT Madras. He was a Humboldt Fellow at Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany.
He was listed among the top 2% scientists worldwide by the Stanford University. He was also recognised in the rank list of top researchers out of seven million researchers in the world.
Mr. Sekhar joined IIT-Kharagpur in 1993 as a lecturer and got promoted to professor in 2003. He joined the department of mechanical engineering at IIT-Madras in June 2006. He has published over 200 papers in international journals and conferences. He is the co-author of the book, Dynamic Analysis of Rotating Systems and Applications (Multi Science Publishing Ltd., the U.K.).
His areas of research include rotor dynamics, tribology, condition monitoring, and vibrations. He had earlier worked as an engineer for four years in NTPC and BEML.
