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Dr.
R. Velraj was born on 7th July 1965 in Nagercoil,
Kanyakumari disrict of Tamil Nadu, India.
He
has 35 years of teaching experience.
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Administrative Positions held |
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Education |
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B.E.,
(Mechanical Engineering)
in 1986 from Annamalai University. (First
Class)
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M.E.,
(Energy Engineering)
in 1992 from Anna University. (First Class
with Distinction)
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Ph.D.,
(Thermal Storage Studies for Energy
Applications) from Anna University
in 1999 (20 months research stay at Solar
Institute, Juelich, Germany under
DAAD fellowship during 1995-1997). (Highly
commended)
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Awards and Honors |
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Committee Member of the Institution of Engineers (India) as Eminent Engineer, for Tamil Nadu State Centre. (Period 2018 – 2021) and for All India council Member for a period of one year (2022).
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Recognized as the top 2% Scientists (International Level) in the field of Energy vide the list released by Stanford University, USA, since 2020.
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Secured first rank in the poster presentation at “India International Science Festival” under the theme “Water Segment” organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology; Ministry of Earth Sciences and Ministry of Health and family Welfare, Govt. of India in collaboration with VIBHA and CSIR Dt: 22.12.2020
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Recipient of “Research Excellence Award” in 2019 from CTDT Anna University.
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Recipient of “Distinguished Researcher Award" in the year 2019 from Anna University.
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Recipient
of “Tamil Nadu Scientist
Award (TANSA) 2014 (Environmental Science)”
by Government of TamilNadu – Received
from Hon’ble Minister for Higher
Education, in the year 2017.
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Recipient of "Achievement
Award" by Appadurai Chair
for Power Systems, Anna University in
recognizing the contribution towards technological
developments to be adopted by TANGEDCO
in the year 2017.
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Recipient of “Best Innovation
Award– 2013" by Anna
University.
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Recipient of “Best Poster
Award - 2012" by Defense
Institute of Advanced Technology, Pune,
Naval Post Graduate School & Office
of Naval Research, USA.
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Recipient of “Active Consultant
Award - 2011” by Anna University.
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Recipient of “DAAD Award”
for Ph.D. Research at Solar Institute,
Juelich during June 1995 - Jan 1997 by
DAAD, Germany.
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Administrative Contributions and Key Achievements |
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Contributions and Key achievements made as Vice Chancellor of Anna University
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Revamped curriculum for affiliated colleges (2022) and University Departments (2024) through a brainstorming session with over 100 experts.
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Enhanced PG admissions at Anna University and Government engineering colleges by implementing a new entrance exam procedure (CEETA PG), attracting top-tier students to Anna University.
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Recruited over 150 high-quality faculty members through a transparent process for the main and MIT campuses.
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Established 17 new research centres to foster a strong research culture.
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Introduced an effective Grievance Redressal Mechanism at the Centre for Research, providing immediate solutions for research scholars.
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Promoted international student admissions through initiatives by the Centre for International Relations, significantly increasing foreign and NRI student enrolment for 2024-25.
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Founded the Entrepreneurship Development Innovation Council to support innovation, product development, technology transfer, and entrepreneurship.
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Introduced value-added courses in Yoga/meditation to improve the well-being of students and faculty.
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Expanded extension and outreach activities via NSS to inculcate a service-oriented mindset in students.
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Documented university achievements (journals, patents) to enhance Anna University’s global and national rankings, with notable QS rank improvements from 2022 to 2024 (as shown in Figure 1). During my tenure as VC, Anna University QS rankings soared to 383 in 2025.
Contributions made as Director, IES, Anna University (2013 -2018)
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The year on year revenue growth of IES was increased appreciably during the last 5 years between 2013 to 2018 compared to the previous years, which is witnessed through revenue growth during this period as shown in Figure 2.
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A research atmosphere has been created in the Institute, which is evident from the increase in number of research scholars from 14 during the year 2012 to 60 during the year 2018 (Several scholars in regular Ph.D. programs with various fellowships / JRFs). Further there is an appreciable growth in publications in reputed international journals. The number of ongoing research Projects increased from one during the year 2012 to eight during the year 2018.
As Director, AU-FRG Institute for CAD/CAM Anna University (2010 -2013)
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Served as Director, AU-FRG Institute for CAD/CAM, for a period of 3 ½ years (2010-2013). During this tenure, more than 40% growth in revenue earning was achieved in all the 3 years, as shown in Figure 3. A lot of Infrastructure development was made during this period.
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Served as Director, AU-FRG Institute for CAD/CAM, for a period of 3 ½ years (2010-2013). During this tenure, more than 40% growth in revenue earning was achieved in all the 3 years, as shown in Figure 3. A lot of Infrastructure development was made during this period.
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Field of Expertise |
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Fundamentals
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Heat Transfer
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Computational
Fluid Dynamics
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Heat
Exchangers
• Power
Plant Engineering
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Research
and Applications |
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Energy
Storage |
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Building
cooling applications
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Solar applications
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Microgrid
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Electronic cooling |
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Distributed
Renewable Energy
Source Utilization
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Nano Fluids
and Nano Coatings
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Academic
Research
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Supervised
37 scholars
towards completion of their
Ph.D. Contributed significantly
for 15 more scholars for
the completion of their
Ph.D.
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Scientific citation more than 16,500 with H-index of 67 as per google scholar citations.
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Few scholars have visited reputed Universities abroad for short research stay through international fellowships / as part of the research project.
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Sponsored
Research Projects |
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He
has to his credit, 12
sponsored research projects
as Principal Investigator
with funding received from
various Government bodies
such as, DST, MNRE,
DRDO, IGCAR, CWET, TEDA,
etc,
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One of the major research
project is “Sustainable Energy Technologies - Integration of Energy Storage options with Renewable Energy Power Generation for Sustainable Micro Smart Grid”
with a financial grant of
Rs. 15 crores
by MHRD under RUSA research
and innovation scheme in
which he formed a consortium
of scientists from seven
leading Universities in
Tamil Nadu to execute the
project successfully.
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Consultancy
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He
has executed 32
consultancy projects as
Principal Consultant
for various companies and
Government organizations.
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He
made a major breakthrough
in the project on “District
wise Biomass resource assessment
study for Tamil Nadu”
in the year 2009 and the
outcome of this project
was published as a book
owned by Tamil Nadu Energy
Development Agency.
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Figure 1: Anna University QS Ranking standings in recent years.
Figure 2: Year-on-year revenue growth of IES from 2012 to 2017, showing significant improvement compared to previous years.
Figure 3: Increase in revenue generation between 2010 – 2013 at AU-FRG Institute for CAD/CAM |
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