K. Chidananda Gowda

Prof. K. Chidananda Gowda is the former Vice-Chancellor of the Kuvempu University, which is located in the state of Karnataka, India. He is also the son-in-law of the Kannada playwright, Kuvempu, after whom the Kuvempu University is named. He has published many papers, mainly in the field of pattern recognition.

Prof. Chidananda Gowda was born in the village of Chokkady, near Sullia on 15 June 1942. He completed his graduation in Engineering from the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering at Bangalore in 1964. He continued his studies and obtained a Master's degree in Engineering from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in 1969. He returned to Bangalore and completed his PhD from the Indian Institute of Science in 1979. He married Tarini, the second daughter of Kuvempu. He also spent two years at NASA, United States and one year at INRIA, France for conducting post-doctoral research.

Prof. Chidananda Gowda joined the Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering in Mysore as a Professor in the Computer science department and later went on to head the department. He also served as the Vice Principal of the College for about 5 years and later as the Principal for about 1.5 years. He was also a visiting professor at INRIA. He was appointed as the Vice-Chancellor of the Kuvempu University of 18 January 2002, a post which he held till 19 January 2006. He has chaired technical conferences at Zurich, Paris, Tokyo and Luxembourg. He is currently a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at the International School of Information Management, University of Mysore, Mysore. Many also refer to him as the father of Symbolic Data Analysis in the English speaking world.

During his tenure as the Vice-Chancellor, he had to face tough situations like the allegation that the University colleges were being used as a training centre for Naxalites. He is credited to have improved the infrastructure at the University. He also was responsible for starting new departments of business administration, microbiology, biochemistry in the University. The distance education program saw a significant growth in his tenure.

He has also authored books in Kannada and English. Some of his Kannada books include Engineering Geetegalu (Engineering Songs - 1980), Putaanigala Vignyana Padyagalu (Poems on Science for kids - 1984) and Samparka Madhyamagalu (Communication media - 1999).

Prof. Chidananda Gowda was awarded the Kannada Sahitya Akademi award for his book, Putaanigala Vignyana Padyagalu in 1986. He was also given the M. Visveswaraya Technical Award in 1995 for his contributions to engineering.

Family:Tarini Chidananda,Prarthana Kolambe,Sheelavathi,Anyun Reddy,Smaya Reddy,Puttanna Gowda,Balaki Padejar and Sitama