Prof. B. Thimme Gowda (Born on 08-08-1952), Former Vice Chairman (Nov.2020-March 2023), Karnataka State Higher Education Council, was a teacher, researcher and an academic administrator for abot 52 years. He was Vice-Chancellor of the undivided Bangalore University from Feb. 2013 to Feb. 2017. After completing his term, he was appointed as the First Vice Chancellor of Karnataka State Rural Development and Panchayat Raj University, Gadag, in March 2017, first of its kind in the country. He was also the Acting Vice Chancellor of Mangalore University.
Prior to joining Bangalore University as its Vice Chancellor, Prof. Gowda was a Teacher and Researcher for 40 years, out of which over 30 years at Mangalore University, where he held several Academic and Administrative Positions including the Acting Vice Chancellorship, Dean, Faculty of Science and Technology, Director, University Science Instrumentation Centre, Chairman, Dept. of Chemistry, Chairman, Board of Studies in Chemistry etc. Prof. Thimme Gowda had First Class Academic Career with Distinctions and Ranks (B.Sc.-1971, M.Sc.-1973 and Ph.D.-1978). He did his post-doctoral and collaborative research in USA, Germany and Japan for over 6 years. He was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow during 1980-1982, at the Hydrocarbon Research Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA. Prof. Gowda was awarded the prestigious German Humboldt Research Fellowship in 1992, by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany, on which he spent over 3 years in Germany in several visits for Collaborative research. He had very fruitful collaborations with the German research groups at Technical University, Darmstadt, resulting in about five hundred joint research publications. It was appreciated by the German Government. In 2008, Prof. Thimme Gowda was awarded Tokushima Foundation Research Fellowship of Japan for collaborative research at Tokushima University.
Prof. Thimme Gowda has made significant research contributions in the field of structural and physical organic chemistry. He has guided 41 Ph.Ds. and published about 700 research papers in peer reviewed, mostly International Journals. Prof. Gowda has been India’s most prolific author in 2009 and 2011.
Apart from German Humboldt Fellowship & Japan Tokushima Foundation Fellowship, Prof. Gowda was also awarded National Merit Scholarship, CSIR Research Fellowship, National Overseas Fellowship, PDF in USA, Young Scientist Award, Rotary Award for Academic Distinction, Mysore University Golden Jubilee Science and Technology Award, Lifetime Achievement Award from the Indian Council of Chemists etc.
Prof. B. Thimme Gowda has also worked in various Committees of NAAC, UGC, MHRD & KSHEC, such as, Member of the Advisory, Executive and Standing Committees of NAAC, Bangalore (2017-19) and also as Chairman/ Member, NAAC Accreditation / Re-accreditation Committees, Member / Chairman of Several Committees of MHRD, UGC and KSHEC, including Deemed and Private Universities and Autonomous Status Review Committees, apart from working as Member / Chairman of Statutory Committees in Bangalore, Mangalore & KSRDPR Universities(1991- 2019).
Prof. B. Thimme Gowda, at present, is the Chairman of the Steering and Moderation Committees for Karnataka State Eligibility Test (K-SET) for Assistant Professorship in Karnataka. He is also Senior Academic Consultant at the National Assessment and Accreditation Council
Prof. B. Thimme Gowda was a member of Taskforce on implementation of NEP-2020 in Karnataka and Chairman of the Sub-committee on Curriculum Reforms in Higher Education. He played a major role in implementing NEP-2020 in Karnataka, by formulating Model Curricular Structure for 4-Year Undergraduate Progammes and supervising the work of various subject committees in curriculum design and in drafting model curriculum content for various disciplines.