Bivek Baral has been appointed vice-chancellor of Kathmandu University (KU).
Prime Minister and KU Chancellor Balendra Shah appointed Baral based on the recommendation of the Vice-chancellor Selection and Recommendation Committee.
Minister for Education and Sports Sasmit Pokharel formally handed Baral his appointment letter at the ministry on Friday.
The selection committee, coordinated by Minister Pokharel, had recommended three candidates, including Baral, to the prime minister. Shah subsequently appointed Baral as vice-chancellor based on the committee’s recommendation.
The KU Senate meeting held on May 2 had formed the recommendation committee under Minister Pokharel’s coordination to select the university’s new vice-chancellor.
The committee members were Reshu Aryal Dhungana, a member of the National Planning Commission, and Suresh Raj Sharma, chairman of the KU Board of Trustees and the university’s founding vice-chancellor.
Baral is a professor in KU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. He is the first person to become the vice-chancellor of KU after having studied there. He was a student in the university’s second engineering batch.
He completed his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at KU, earned a master’s degree from the University of Tokyo, Japan, and obtained a PhD from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Baral’s areas of expertise include fuel and energy, combustion science and environmental pollution, thermo-fluid engineering, and computational fluid dynamics. He rose through the ranks from assistant professor and associate professor to professor.
