DR. M. ANANDAKRISHNAN

1. DR. M. ANANDAKRISHNAN

Born in 1928, Dr. M. Anandakrishnan obtained his B.E in 1952 from College of Engineering, Guindy, Madras University and Ph.D in 1960 in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota, USA. He was the first Science Counsellor at the Embassy of India Washington, D.C. from 1974 to 1978. Later he served the United Nations (1978-1989) as the Chief of the New Technologies, and Deputy Director of the UN Centre for S&T for Development and also as the Secretary of the UN Advisory Committee on S&T for Development. On his retirement from the United Nations, Dr. Anandakrishnan took over the responsibilities as the Vice-Chancellor of Anna University (1990-96). From 1996- 2001, he served as the Vice-Chairman of the Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education. Concurrently he also served as the Advisor to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on Information Technology and e-Governance. He is now the Chairman of the High Level Committee for Review of the Undergraduate Engineering Education in India. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, India and the National Academy of Sciences, India. He has published four books and more than one hundred papers. He is the recipient of several prestigious honours and awards including The Order of Scientific Merit from the President of Brazil (1996) and Padma Shri from the President of India (2002) and Distinguished Leadership Award from the President of the University of Minnesota (2003) and Platinum Jubilee Award from Indian Ceramics Society (2004) He is also the Chairman of the Madras Institute of Development Studies.