After nine-month gap, Vadodara’s M S University gets new Vice-Chancellor

Bhanage, 59, will take over charge from in-charge Vice-Chancellor Professor Dhanesh Patel, who has been officiating as the V-C since his appointment in February this year.

According to officials of MSU, in the past, Bhanage was appointed as Member of Board of Studies of Department of Chemistry for two terms as an expert nominated by the V-Cs. An official said, “The total tenure for two terms as Member of Board of Education is six months. The practice is to appoint an expert from outside MSU… In that sense, Bhanage is known to the Science Faculty of MSU and is an eminent scholar.”

The Maharashtra-based chemistry scholar tipped three MSU professors to the post as his appointment was finalised by the search committee appointed by the state government for the purpose. This includes in-charge V-C Patel, who has been credited with completing the works that had been pending in the MSU administration for at least the last four years.

“Not only did Prof Patel, while holding charge as V-C, complete all promotions that were pending since 2019, he also, for the first time, appointed the Temporary Assistant Professors well in advance before the commencement of the academic session. The MSU also advertised for permanent teachers posts for persons with physical disability and the appointment letters for the same will be handed over by early next week,” said the official quoted above.

Bhanage holds a Ph D, awarded in 1996 by the University of Pune for his research topic “Studies in Hydroformylation of Olefins using Transition Metal Complex Catalysts”. He has cleared the UGC’s CSIR NET exam twice, in 1988 and 1989, and has been attached to ICT as Professor since 2004.

Between 2009 and 2014 as well as from December 2021 to December 2024, Bhanage served as the Head of Department of Chemistry as well as Dean (Infrastructure & Campus Development) from August 2014 to November 2021.

Bhanage is the Coordinator for Marathi Encyclopedia in Chemistry Subject for the Maharashtra State Marathi Encyclopedia Production Board.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK, as well as the Biotech Research Society of India, Bhanage began his academic journey as a Research Chemist at National Chemical Laboratory, Pune in 1988-90 and thereafter became a Research Fellow (UGC) in National Chemical Laboratory from 1991 to 1995. He was also a CSIR Project Associate at National Chemical Laboratory from 1996 to 1997 and JSPS Fellow at Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan from 1998 to 2000. Besides, he was a CREST Fellow (JST) at Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan from 2000 to 2003.

Bhanage is a recipient of several awards and is listed among top 2% scientists in the world as per analysis published by Stanford University, USA, in the subject of Organic Chemistry since 2019.