Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi has announced the appointment of Prof Lakshmidhar Behera as the new Director of the institute. Prof Behera takes over from Dr AK Chaturvedi, the current acting Director of IIT Mandi and Director of IIT Roorkee. He is currently serving as the Poonam and Prabhu Goel Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering at IIT Kanpur.

Only the second full-time director of the institute, which was established in 2010, Prof Behera succeeds its Founding Director, Prof Timothy A Gonsalves, who retired in 2020. Also an affiliate faculty member of Tata Consultancy Services, Prof Behera completed his PhD from IIT Delhi in 1997. He is an alumnus of the National Institution of Technology Rourkela (NIT Rourkela) from where he completed his BSc and MSc in Engineering in 1988 and 1990, respectively.

Prof Behara is known for his contribution to research in areas such as Intelligent Systems and Control, Vision-based Robotics, Warehouse Automation, Brain-Computer-Interface and Drone-based Pipeline Inspection Systems. He served as a visiting professor at ETH Zurich and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (FHG), Germany. He supervised 22 PhD candidates to completion and has authored three graduate-level textbooks.

Acknowledging his appointment, the professor called it a huge honour and responsibility, and in a statement released by IIT Mandi, he said, "I will strive hard for the all-round and holistic development of the institute where culture of excellence will be a norm."