Prof. R.S. Sirohi took over as Vice-Chancellor of Shobhit University, Meerut recently. Prior to this, he was Vice-Chancellor of Barkatullah University, Bhopal and the Director of IIT Delhi. Prof. Sirohi did his Masters in Physics in 1964 from Agra University and Post M.Sc. in Applied Optics and Ph. D. in Physics from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi in 1965 and 1970 respectively. Prof. Sirohi was Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering Department at Indian Institute of Technology Madras during 1971-1979. He became Professor in the Physics Department of the same Institute in 1979.

Prof. Sirohi worked as Humboldt Fellow at Physikalische - Technische Bundesanstalt Braunschweig, Germany. He was a Senior Research Associate at Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, USA. Prof. Sirohi was an Associate Professor at Rose Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, USA. He was ICTP (International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste Italy) Consultant to Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Malaya, Malaysia and was Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore. He is currently ICTP Visiting Scientist to University of Namibia.

Prof. Sirohi is Fellow of several important academies in India and abroad including Indian National Academy of Engineering; National Academy of Sciences, Optical Society of America; Optical Society of India; SPIE (The International Society for Optical Engineering) and honorary fellow of ISTE and Metrology Society of India. He is member of several other scientific societies, and founding member of India Laser Association. Prof. Sirohi was also the Chair for SPIE-INDIA Chapter, which he established with co-operation from SPIE in 1995 at IIT Madras. He was invited as JSPS Fellow and JITA Fellow to Japan. He was a member of the Education Committee of SPIE.

Prof. Sirohi was awarded the prestigious Humboldt Research Award by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Bonn, Germany in 1995 for his outstanding contributions to Optical Metrology. The International Commission of Optics (ICO) also chose him for the 1995 Galileo Award. The Optical Society of India awarded him the Amita De Award for his contributions to optics. He also received 13th Khwarizmi International Award IROST (2000) from the President of Iran. During this occasion UNESCO also gave him Albert Einstein Silver Medal (2000) for his contributions to science. He has been bestowed with (i) Dr. YT Thathachari Prestigious Award for Science (2001), (ii) Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru Award in Engineering & Technology for 2000, (awarded in 2002), (iii) NRDC Technology Invention Award May 11, 2003, (iv)Sir CV Raman Award: Physical Sciences for 2002. In year 2004, Govt. of India awarded him the national Civilian Award ‘Padma Shri’. He received Sir CV Raman Centenary Award from Indian Science Congress Association in January 2005. During the international workshop, Fringe05, he was inducted into the Order as Holo-Knight for his work in holography.

Prof. Sirohi is a member on several Boards and Committees in India. He was the President of the Optical Society of India during 1994-1996. He was on the International Advisory Board of the Journal of Modern Optics, UK and on the editorial Boards of the Journal of Optics (India) and Optik (Germany). He is currently Associate Editor of the International Journal Optical Engineering, USA and regional editor of the Journal of Holography and Speckle, USA. He was a Guest Editor to the Journals Optical Engineering. He was also a Guest Editor to the Journals "Optics and Lasers in Engineering" and "Optical Engineering".

Prof. Sirohi has published 234 papers in national and international journals, 60 papers in Proceedings of the conferences and has authored/co-authored/edited thirteen books including five milestones for SPIE. He has participated in numerous international and national conferences and presented over 140 papers. He was Principal co-ordinator for 26 projects sponsored by Government Funding Agencies and Industries. He has supervised 22 Ph.D. theses, 7 M.S. theses and numerous B.Tech., M.Sc. and M.Tech. theses.

Prof. Sirohi's research areas are Optical Metrology, Optical Instrumentation, Holography and Speckle Phenomenon.

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SHOBHIT UNIVERSITY, Meerut has been established under section 3 of UGC act 1956.More details are available at www.shobhituniversity.ac.in