Pradeep K. Khosla dean of Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering, also known as the Carnegie Institute of Technology, has been selected as the eighth chancellor of the University of California, San Diego by UC president Mark G. Yudof.

This is the second big appointment in U.S. academia for an IIT-ian in the last few months. Prior to this Soumitra Dutta, alumnus of IIT-Delhi was given the title of the dean of the Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management recently. This IIT- Kharagpur alumni Khosla will be replacing Marye Anne Fox, who is retiring in August 2012.

Serving as a dean for eight years at CMU Kholsa had set the direction for graduate and undergraduate research. He started curriculum reform, diversity efforts and instituted multidisciplinary and multi-college research centres as well as international programmes. Khosla has also been instrumental in the college's fund raising in a $100 million campaign for a university wide energy institute and $90 million campaign for a 100,000 square foot College of Engineering building for biotech, energy and nanotechnology. He has received his master's degree and doctorate in electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon in the 1980s.

According to Mark Yudof, University of California President, Khosla will set of attributes that will enable the university to build on the excellence that bring to UC San Diego a distinctive has made it one of the top institutions of higher learning in the world. Talking about Khosla, Mark described him as a time-tested, oft-honored researcher, an innovative educator dedicated to improving the quality of life for students, faculty and staff, and an entrepreneurial leader with a global vision and proven fund raising abilities.