Madras University, which is one of the oldest and reputed varsities in the nation, has got a new Vice-Chancellor after its Chancellor and Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit has, on Thursday, appointed Professor S Gowri as the new Vice-Chancellor. 

After being appointed, Gowri has become the 45th vice-chancellor of the 163-year-old university and he will hold the office for three years. The selection has come as the sequel of the search carried out by the three-member panel which was installed to select the Vice-Chancellor for the varsity. The search panel included Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University Jagadeesh Kumar, former Vice-Chancellor of Madurai Kamaraj University Maruthamuthu, and former Vice-Chancellor of Alagappa University. 

According to the reports, 177 people had applied for the job of which the panel shortlisted 43 candidates and 12 candidates, including three women, were called for the interview and Professor Gowri was one among the three candidates - S Gowri, Usha Natesan, and S Ganesan (all from Anna University) who were shortlisted final round of interview. The panel took the interview at the Tamil Nadu Open University Campus in Chennai and JNU's VC had joined virtually while two other members joined in person. 

Following the panel's interview, three final candidates had an interview with the governor on Thursday after which Gowri has been selected as the new Vice-Chancellor of Madras University and on Thursday, Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit had handed over the official appointment letter to the 45th Vice-chancellor of the varsity. 

Professor Gowri has a teaching experience of 37 years and he is a Post-Doctoral Fellow of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He was the visiting professor at the University of Applied Sciences, Weingarten, Germany, and the visiting Research Fellow at Gintic Institute of Manufacturing Technology, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

He is currently the director of The Educational Multimedia Research Center, which is an inter-university center of UGC at the Anna University. He was also the professor in the department of manufacturing engineering in Anna University and he served as the first Registrar of the Anna University of Technology, Chennai and held the posts of Chairman, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Anna University of Technology, Chennai and Founder Head of Department of Manufacturing Engineering ad Head of Department of Media Science.

He also served as the Director Independent of Tamil Nadu Small Industries Corporation Limited (TANSI), Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV, and Tamil Nadu Ex Servicemen's Corporation Limited of the government of Tamil Nadu. He was also conferred with an outstanding academic award from the Indian Society for Technical Education. 

Gowri is a first-generation graduate who belongs to Maravamangalam in Sivagangai district of Tamil Nadu. He did schooling in Tamil medium and he completed his Bachelor of Engineering from Thiyagarajar College in Madurai and did his MTech and Doctorate from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.