THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: M Abdul Salam, Professor and Head of the Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture of the Kerala Agricultural University at Vellayani here, has been appointed as the new Vice-Chancellor of the Calicut University. Governor R S Gavai ratified the appointment of Abdul Salam as the Vice-Chancellor on Thursday.The name of Abdul Salam, along with two others, were forwarded by the three-member search committee, comprising CPM leader C H Ashik (representative of the Calicut University senate), Chief Secretary P Prabhakaran (representative of the Government) and Calicut University former Vice-Chancellor Syed Iqbal Hasnain (representative of the UGC), to the Governor on Thursday. Abdul Salam is an agricultural scientist, specialising in the areas of Agronomy such as cashew nut production, irrigation water management, soil fertility management, organic farming and bio-ethanol from cashew apple etc.He did his graduation from the University of Kerala and M Sc Agronomy from Kerala Agricultural University in 1976 and PhD in Agronomy in 1984 from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. He did his post-doctorate from the University of Aberdeen, UK, in 1992. Abdul Salam, who has over 31 years of teaching experience in various universities, had also worked as visiting professor at the Kuwait University during the period 2003-2007.He has written and published 12 books, both in English and Malayalam, to benefit the farmers, extension workers and scientists.He has received various awards, including the Krishi Vigyan Award of the Kerala Government, Sri S R P Ponnuswamy Chettiar Medal and Shield for PhD, G S Pathak’s Prize for PhD, Karumuthu Thyagarajan Chettiar Medal for PhD, Foreign Examiner’s Donation Medal for PhD and Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellowship. He has also received the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Senior Fellowship for PhD and ICAR Junior Fellowship for MSc Agriculture. He was the member of the KAU expert team to study cashew pest problem, Calicut University expert committee to study environmental problem in cashew and Govt-appointed expert committee and KAU panel to study the endosulfan issue etc.He was also a member of the Cashew Development Council of the State Government and project-coordinator for cashew research at KAU.
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