Indian American Satish Tripathi appointed US varsity president

Washington: Reputed Indian American computer scientist Satish K. Tripathi, a Banaras Hindu University alumnus, has been appointed president of the prestigious University at Buffalo (UB) in New York state.

Tripathi, 60, is the first non-American president in the history of UB, the largest and most comprehensive university in the State University of New York (SUNY) system and one of two SUNY institutions which is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU).

Jeremy M. Jacobs, chair of the UB Council and the presidential search committee, said Tripathi was the unanimous choice of the council, selected from an outstanding pool of some 70 candidates in a very competitive search spread over seven months.

"Dr. Tripathi is a gifted leader and accomplished researcher who possesses the ability and knowledge to guide UB to become one of the world's truly great research universities," Jacobs said.

Tripathi says he is committed to furthering the vision of the university that is at the heart of the UB 2020 plan: to make UB an excellent university and bring it to the next level, where it is competing with the top research universities in the country.

"To do that, we need to make an impact with our research, have a better quality of life for our citizenry and foster economic development in Western New York, as well as provide an excellent education for our students," he said.

Tripathi, who served as UB provost and executive vice president for academic affairs for six years, succeeds John B. Simpson as head of SUNY's most comprehensive university.

Tripathi graduated top of his class from Banaras Hindu University in India, and holds three master's degrees - one in computer science from the University of Toronto and two in statistics from the University of Alberta and Banaras Hindu University.

After receiving a doctorate in computer science from the University of Toronto in 1979, he joined the computer science faculty at the University of Maryland, where he spent 19 years on the faculty, including seven years as department chair.

He moved on to the University of California-Riverside in 1997 to become dean of the Bourns College of Engineering. He joined UB as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs in 2004. IANS