Geologist and vice-chancellor of University of Kashmir Talat Ahmad has been appointed the new vice-chancellor of Jamia Milia Islamia.
President Pranab Mukherjee, in his capacity as the Visitor of the University, appointed Mr. Ahmad for the position which had been vacant since former Jamia vice-chancellor Najeeb Jung was made Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor, a statement from the varsity said on Tuesday.
Mr. Ahmad is an Earth Scientist who previously served at the Department of Geology, University of Delhi.
Born in Giridih, Jharkhand, Mr. Ahmad did his Masters in Geology at Aligarh Muslim University and went on to complete his PhD in Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1985.
He has also been a post doctoral fellow with three foreign universities — University of Leicester, U.K., under the Government of India Fellowship; University of Cambridge and the Nagoya University, Japan.
Mr. Ahmad began his career as a junior geologist with the Geological Survey of India and worked for 19 years as a scientist with Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, under Department of Science and Technology, Dehradun.
He joined the Department of Geology, University of Delhi, as Professor in October 2003. He took over as vice-chancellor of University of Kashmir in June 2011.
Mr. Ahmad has the exceptional distinction of being a Fellow of all the science academies of the country: Indian National Science academy, New Delhi; Indian Academy of Sciences; and National Academy of Sciences.
He has over 65 research publications to his credit. He has supervised several MPhil and PhD research studies at the University of Delhi and the Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra.
