Nishan Canagarajah

Cedric Nishan Canagarajah (born 1966) is a British Tamil academic and the current president and vice-chancellor of the University of Leicester.[1] He was previously one of the pro-vice-chancellors of the University of Bristol.[2]

Professor

Nishan Canagarajah
Born
Cedric Nishan Canagarajah

1966 (age 54–55)
Sri Lanka
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
OccupationAcademic

Early life and family

Canagarajah was born in 1966 in Sri Lanka.[3][4] His mother was a teacher.[5] He was educated at St. John's College, Jaffna.[6] After school he joined the University of Cambridge from where he received a BA honours degree in electronics and information sciences in 1989 and a Ph.D. in digital signal processing in 1993.[3][4][7]

Canagarajah is married to Thabitha.[5] They have a daughter (Aarabi) and two sons (Sujan and Dheeran).[5]

Career

Canagarajah joined the University of Bristol in 1993 as a research assistant.[3][4] He was promoted to lecturer in 1994, senior lecturer in 1999 and reader in 2001.[4] He became professor of multimedia signal processing in 2004.[3][4] He was promoted to research director at the university's Faculty of Engineering in 2006 and head of Department of Computer Science in 2009.[3] He became head of Merchant Venturers School of Engineering in 2010 before becoming dean of the Faculty of Engineering in 2011.[3] He was appointed pro-vice-chancellor for research and enterprise in August 2014.[3] In August 2019 it was announced that he would become president and vice-chancellor of the University of Leicester in November 2019.[8][9]

Canagarajah's research contributions in image segmentation and texture classification are internationally recognized and his research on audio signal processing led to an interactive exhibit, Virtual Drum, at the London Science Museum.[10] He has led a number of successful international research partnerships and is currently theme leader for the joint £5M EPSRC/DST collaborative programme on next generation telecommunications systems and services, which includes a number of UK and Indian universities and industrial partners.[11]

Canagarajah has served on a number of national and international panels on research funding, governance and postgraduate education. He acted as a technical consultant for several industrial partners including Sony, BT, BBC, Orange, Thales, Toshiba and the Metropolitan Police Service.[12][13][14] He is part of the Universities UK advisory group to tackle racial harassment in higher education.[15]

In January 2021, members of the Leicester University and College Union voted overwhelmingly in support of a motion of no confidence against Canagarajah, in response to a proposed mass lay-off of faculty members.[16]

References
  1. "Senior staff". University of Leicester.
  2. "Senior staff". University of Bristol.
  3. "Pro Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nishan Canagarajah". University of Bristol.
  4. "Professor Nishan Canagarajah". Faculty of Engineering, University of Bristol.
  5. "Speaking Personally" (PDF). LynchPin: 19. Spring 2009.
  6. "Professor Nishan Canagarajah's Appointment as Pro-Vice Chancellor of Bristol University". Tha Lifestyle. 1 (3): 1. March 2014.
  7. "University of Bristol appoints new Pro Vice-Chancellor". University of Bristol. 11 March 2014.
  8. "New Vice-Chancellor named". Leicester, U.K.: University of Leicester. 19 August 2019. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  9. Martin, Dan (20 August 2019). "University of Leicester appoints Nishan Canagarajah as new vice-chancellor". Leicester Mercury. Leicester, U.K. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  10. "Professor Nishan Canagarajah - University of Bristol". research-information.bris.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  11. "UK-India research collaboration deepens - EPSRC website". epsrc.ukri.org. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  12. "President and Vice-Chancellor | About | University of Leicester". le.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  13. "Digital institute gets £29m boost". BBC News. 2019-07-10. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  14. "Thales and Bristol University sign strategic agreement to collaborate in research and education activities". Thales Group. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  15. "University of Leicester experts appointed to prestigious panel on harassment". le.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  16. Martin, Dan (26 January 2021). "UCU members 'overwhelmingly' back no-confidence motion in Leicester University vice-chancellor". Leicester Mercury. Retrieved 5 February 2021.


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