Indian-American named US university dean

Houston: An Indian-American professor with a diverse set of academic experience in the field of science and technology has been named the dean of a leading US university.

Dr Kinshuk, who goes by single name, has been named the dean of University of North Texas College of Information in the US.

He received his doctoral degree from De Montfort University in England, a master of science in mechanical computer aided engineering from Strathclyde University in Scotland and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from University of Rajasthan in India.

Since 2010, he served as an associate dean at Athabasca University in Alberta, Canada, where he helped lead the Faculty of Science and Technology.

In that role, he helped start new graduate programmes, gained external research funding, developed strategies for student recruitment and promoted senior students and alumni to serve as mentors for new students.

Prior to this, he served as director in the School of Computing and Information Systems.

Kinshuk also served as Industrial Research Chair in Adaptivity and Personalisation in Informatics for the National Science and Engineering Council of Canada.

"Dr Kinshuk brings with him great leadership and research experience," Finley Graves, provost and vice president for academic affairs at UNT, said in a statement.

"We look forward to Dr Kinshuk working with our faculty to articulate a clear vision for the future of the College of Information."

Kinshuk will start his new position from August 15.

"I'm really looking forward to joining such a progressive university and my esteemed new colleagues. I know the College of Information has high expectations and I hope to meet them and raise those even more," said Kinshuk.

Kinshuk's career also includes a variety of other academic positions.

At Massey University in New Zealand, Kinshuk was the director of the Advanced Learning Technologies Research Center, as well as an associate professor, and before that, a senior lecturer.

He also was a research fellow for the German National Research Centre for Information Technology in St. Augustin, Germany.

Earlier in his career he was an instructor at the Academy of Computer Education in India, as well as a part-time lecturer at the Government Polytechnic College in India.