Katepalli Sreenivasan Appointed President of NYU-Poly

BROOKLYN, New York, United States

Dr. Katepalli R. Sreenivasan, an experimental physicist whose research focuses on the behavior of fluids and turbulence, has been appointed president of the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, effective immediately.

NYU-Poly, one of the oldest engineering and technology schools in the United States, has been affiliated with NYU since 2008. When the merger between the two institutions — which will make NYU-Poly New York University’s school of engineering – is completed in 2014, Sreenivasan will be Dean of Engineering at NYU.

As president, Sreenivasan will continue to build NYU-Poly as a leader in engineering and technology, and will oversee the school’s transition to NYU’s school of engineering, according to a press release. In this capacity, Sreenivasan will focus on the development of faculty, research, and educational programs at NYU-Poly, all in partnership with other centers of scientific research throughout NYU. He will also lead all aspects of engineering at NYU.

Sreenivasan was appointed acting president of NYU-Poly in November 2012, following a 13-month term as the school’s provost.

He joined NYU in 2009 from the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, where he was director, and was concurrently on the faculty of the University of Maryland, where he was Distinguished University Professor, Glenn L. Martin Professor of Engineering and professor of physics, and director of the Institute for Physical Science and Technology.

Prior to that, the Indian American professor was at Yale for 22 years, where he was the Harold W. Cheel Professor of Mechanical Engineering from 1988, with joint appointments in the departments of physics, applied physics, and mathematics. Between 1987 and 1992, he was the chair of Yale’s mechanical engineering department.

Sreenivasan is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, and the African Academy of Sciences.

He earned his B.E. in mechanical engineering from Bangalore University, and his M.E. and Ph.D. (P.S. Narayana Medal) in aeronautical engineering from the Indian Institute of Science.