Prof. Timothy A. Gonsalves, Founding Director, completes over a decade of leadership at IIT Mandi
Mandi: Founding Director of the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, Prof. Timothy A. Gonsalves, has completed his extended tenure of over 10 years today, 30th June 2020. Completing his term at the age of 66, Prof. Gonsalves will hand over the charge to Prof. Ajit K. Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee, as the Acting Director with effect from 1st July 2020.
In these ten years, IIT Mandi has scaled new heights of innovation, entrepreneurial ecosystem, quality faculty, high-end research, global collaborations with academia and industry, unique curriculum and teaching methods, gender inclusivity on campus besides being the most scenic campus among all IITs.
Some of the key milestones and achievements during Prof. Timothy A. Gonsalves’ 10 years in leadership of the Institute include that Growing the student strength from 97 in 2010 to 1,655 students today, enrolled in undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes, from 20 to over 125 faculty, and 1,141 alumni; and a fully residential campus with 1,30,000 sqm buildings completed and 86,000 sqm in progress.
Expanding the degree programmes from the initial 3 B.Tech. programmes to 7 B.Tech. + 13 Master’s + M.S. and Ph.D. today. Notably, IIT Mandi offers M.A. (Development Studies) run by the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and a B.Tech. (Data Science & Engineering) that is a first in the IIT system.
Prof. Gonsalves was instrumental in bringing in innovative approaches to improving gender ratio in the IITs. In the academic year of 2019-2020, the Institute admitted 20.22% female students in B.Tech. programme. This is the highest proportion of female students in a B.Tech. programme in any of the 23 IITs.
His vision to develop IIT Mandi as a research-focused institute has enabled the Institute to be involved in over 275 Research and Development (R&D) projects worth more than Rs. 120 crore.
In the past 10 years, the Institute has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with as many as 11 international and 12 national universities.
Under the leadership of Prof. Gonsalves, IIT Mandi Catalyst, the first Technology Business Incubator in Himachal Pradesh, was established. It has helped over 75 startups since 2017 and is changing both the industry profile and entrepreneurial mindset in the state. So far, Catalyst has secured external funding of Rs. 24 crore from various funding agencies.
Talking about his journey, Prof. Timothy A. Gonsalves, Director, IIT Mandi, said, “I am leaving IIT Mandi with strong foundations, with a very committed and capable leadership team of Deans, many other faculty and staff. With them, I’m confident that IIT Mandi will not only weather the COVID storm but will emerge stronger to scale ever greater heights of academic achievement in the future!”
A senior journalist who has spent more than a decade in the profession, working for Amar Ujala and Aapka Faisla.
