The new vice chancellor of Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University was announced as D. Shantharam on Monday.
He will be taking over on Thursday as the eighth V-C of the university.
Later in the evening on Monday, Dr. Shantharam and his family called on Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
Dr. Shantharam, born in 1960, commenced his MBBS at the Madras Medical College in 1978. He completed the course in 1984 and did his post graduate diploma in diabetology from MMC in 1989. During the same year, he joined the State government medical service.
Between 1989 and 1994, he worked in various primary health centres and joined GH as a resident diabetologist on January 1, 1994. The same year he joined Apollo Hospitals as a consultant in diabetology. In 2004, he became professor of diabetology at MMC.
Dr. Shantharam did his MD in General Medicine from Kilpauk Medical College. He is the joint secretary of Diabetic Association of India, southern chapter. In 2011, he was awarded the university’s ‘best teacher’ and ‘best doctor’ awards.
His specialisations are diabetes in pregnancy, diabetic renal disease, diabetic foot and diabetes in heart.
For over three months, speculation has been rife on who would take over the reins from the current V-C Mayil Vahanan Natarajan, an orthopaedic surgeon. The term for a V-C is three years and the appointment is confirmed by the Governor, the chancellor of the university.
Through a government order, Dr. Mayil Vahanan was relieved from his post on Monday and he has joined MMC as director of orthopaedics at MMC, a post he held before becoming the V-C.
Dr. Mayil Vahanan’s tenure saw several changes in the university, including the much debated rise in pass percentage and attendance. The students protested vehemently when the university opted to raise the bar for medical students. It remains to be seen whether the previous V-C’s decisions to increase the pass percentage and the insistence on 90 per cent attendance will be taken forward by the new V-C.
