About Member

Respected Prof. V.N.Rajasekharan Pillai (VNR Pillai) is the Vice-Chancellor of Somaiya Vidyavihar University and Provost of Somaiya Vidyavihar and Somaiya Ayurvihar under the Somaiya Trust, Mumbai. He has been at the helm of affairs of many higher educational and scientific research establishments for over 50 years as a teacher, researcher, professor, and executive head of Education, Science and Technology establishments in the country and abroad. 

An elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Prof. Rajasekharan Pillai is one of the top-cited chemistry researchers in the country. He created an internationally renowned research group in the area of Polymer Science.

About 60 doctoral and post-doctoral researchers have been trained under his direct supervision at the Universities of Calicut, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, University of Tubingen, University of Mainz, Germany, IGNOU, Mewar University, Udaipur, and Somaiya Vidyavihar University Mumbai. Researchers trained under his supervision occupy positions as Directors of National Nabs, VCs of Universities, Bhatnagar Prize winners, Infosys Prize Winner, University Professors, Principals & Scientists in the country and abroad.

• He was Vice-Chairmanship and Chairmanship of the University Grants Commission, Government of India.
• He was Executive Director of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Government of India. 
• He was Vice-Chancellor of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).
• He Was Chairman of the Distance Education Council, Government of India.
• He was Vice-Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala.
• He was Vice-Chancellor of Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kerala.
• He was Executive Vice-President of the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology & Environment.
• Ex-Officio Principal Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology, (Government of Kerala)
• He Was Chairman of the Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority, (under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, (Government of India).
• Chairman of the Kerala Biotechnology Commission.
• Prof. Pillai worked as President of Mewar University, Rajasthan.
• Prof. Rajasekharan Pillai has been a member of the Drafting Committee of the UNESCO Policy on Higher Education, representing India.
• He is also serving as the Chancellor of ICFAI University Tripura and as its Chairman, Board of Governors.
• Chairperson of the MHRD Committee for converting National Institutes of Technologies into university-level institutions, and Chairperson of the committee for conferring deemed-to-be-university status for several prestigious higher education institutions.

After Superannuation from the Government of India and the Government of Kerala. He is also working as President of a New Delhi NCR-based Civil Society Organisation, Human Development Foundation India, since 2015.  He is on the Director Board of Apollo Group of Hospitals and on the Boards of several academic and research establishments in the country and abroad.  Prof. Rajasekharan Pillai has served as Chairman of the National Level Committees on Accreditation of Universities, He has been the Chairman of the Central Universities’ Vice-Chancellor search committees. He was also a visiting research professor at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Top executive positions which he occupied include the 

Awards: He is the recipient of several national and international recognitions and awards, which includes the M.V. Pylee National Award for the “Top Academician of India” Award. Swadeshi Shastra Puraskaram, Materials Research Society of India- Royal Society of Chemistry, Lifetime Achievement Award of the Indian Chemical Society, and Indian Science Congress Association and ISCA-Presidential Gold Medal from the Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh.

Designation

Vice-Chancellor/Provost, Somaiya Vidyavihar University, Mumbai, Maharashtra