Professor Nishan Canagarajah | |
|---|---|
நிஷான் கனகராஜா | |
| Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester | |
| Assumed office November 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Paul Boyle |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Cedric Nishan Canagarajah 1966 (age 58–59) Sri Lanka |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
| Salary | £254,000 (2021–22) [1] |
Cedric Nishan Canagarajah (born 1966) is a British Tamil academic and the current president and vice-chancellor of the University of Leicester. [2] He was previously one of the pro-vice-chancellors of the University of Bristol. [3]
Canagarajah was born in 1966 in Sri Lanka. [4] [5] His mother was a teacher. [6] He was educated at St. John's College,Jaffna. [7] He was the Head Prefect of the college in the year 1985 [8] and also excelled in sports such as cricket,football,volleyball,and hockey. 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. [4] [5] [9]
Canagarajah is married to Thabitha. [6] They have a daughter and two sons. [6]
Canagarajah joined the University of Bristol in 1993 as a research assistant. [4] [5] He was promoted to lecturer in 1994,senior lecturer in 1999 and reader in 2001. [5] He became professor of multimedia signal processing in 2004. [4] [5] He was promoted to research director at the university's Faculty of Engineering in 2006 and head of Department of Computer Science in 2009. [4] He became head of Merchant Venturers School of Engineering in 2010 before becoming dean of the Faculty of Engineering in 2011. [4] He was appointed pro-vice-chancellor for research and enterprise in August 2014. [4] In August 2019 it was announced that he would become president and vice-chancellor of the University of Leicester in November 2019. [10] [11]
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. [12] 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. [13]
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. [14] [15] [16] He is part of the Universities UK advisory group to tackle racial harassment in higher education. [17]
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. [18] In March 2021,students at Leicester also approved a vote of no confidence against Canagarajah,with 1010 votes for the proposal and only 82 opposed. [19]
