• user
  • Prof. Shakil Ahmad Romshoo
    Vice Chancellor

Vice Chancellor's Message

I am delighted to welcome you to Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST). IUST is committed to shoulder the responsibility of quality education, pursue research in important areas, and engage in activities that advance the good of society in order to find solutions to societal issues. We are guided by the 2021-26 strategic plan to make IUST a leading university in the country. Our mission is to foster a capable human resource that can make the University a place of intellectual curiosity and inquisitiveness and bring together bright minds to address the issues of today while taking their rightful place in shaping the future.

By firmly linking the University's past achievements to its future, we will continue to make the utmost efforts to contribute to society through the creation of new and innovative programs and the cultivation of outstanding human resource in order to provide a vibrant, diverse and supportive campus environment. Currently, multiple issues threaten the lives of all people locally and globally which include climate change, natural disasters, environmental degradation, employment, conflicts, widening disparity, and infectious diseases such as the COVID-19. We reaffirm our commitment to seeking solutions to these complex issues faced by the society. Development and promotion of solar and biodiversity parks on campus will be a significant step towards reducing carbon footprint and transforming the University’s campus into an energy efficient and environmentally sustainable place of learning.

We aim to foster a high degree of expertise, creativity and diversity in our students, so that they will become the next generation of creative researchers, leaders, nation-builders, artists, policy- and decision-makers. Ours is a university centered on our students’ success, providing them with right experiences, putting them on right career paths and fostering their skills and mind-set to make them ready for successful careers and professional advancement. Once the students graduate from here, they would have the career direction and the confidence required for success in their chosen fields. Career counselling and effective job placements are an important part of the University’s outreach policy. When you enrol here as an IUSTian, it would mean that you are part of a close-knit community that will support you from day one and would help you to achieve your vision of success so that you can make a mark on society. Our mission is to guide and help you grow, discover, and realize your aspirations. IUST supports gender equality and the elimination of unfair discrimination on the basis of religion, belief, caste, language or economic status. Whether you want to develop your leadership skills, explore your passion for engineering, science or arts, incubate to innovate your ideas or conduct research in frontier areas of science and technology, you will find mentors in our faculty and staff.

I see ingenuity and curiosity among faculty, staff and students across the various schools of the University. However, to succeed in making the University a centre for excellence, we must be collaborative, engaged, open to new ways of working and thinking, and ready to walk the talk as we look to the future of IUST. As Vice-chancellor, I have the privilege and responsibility of leading IUST towards that purpose. I invite you all to become a part of IUST history and be a change maker.


With gratitude to you all,

Professor Shakil Ahmad Romshoo

About Vice Chancellor

Prof. Shakil Ahmad Romshoo, Vice-Chancellor, IUST has a multidisciplinary academic and research background having obtained his Ph.D. in water resources engineering from the University of Tokyo, Japan and M.S. in Remote Sensing and GIS from the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok Thailand. He has ~34 years’ research and academic experience having worked in the past, as a Scientist, at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Tokyo and Fellow at the Energy and Research Institute (TERI), New Delhi, India. He was, till recently, Dean for Research at the University of Kashmir and has headed several Departments at the University of Kashmir.

The Vice-Chancellor has guided 25 Ph.D./M.Phil students till date and published more than 225 publications in the peer reviewed national/international journals and book/book chapters with the total citation score of 4000, h-index of 35 and cumulative impact factor score of ~300 till June, 2022. He is engaged in research on hydrology, glaciology and climate change with the geographical focus on the Himalaya. Professor Romshoo is member of a score of policymaking committees and working groups on environment, water, climate change and disaster management at the state, national and international level.

The Vice-chancellor is the elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences (FASc), Indian Society of Remote Sensing (FISRS) and Indian Society of Geomatics (FISG). He has won more than a dozen of national and international awards for his academic achievements and notable among these are the Satish Dhawan Award from ISRS-ISRO in 2019, National Geoscience Award conferred by the President of India in 2013, ISG President’s Appreciation Medal for the promotion of Geomatics in India in 2015, Best Research Award (ISG-ISRO) conferred by Shri Narendra Modi, CM of Gujarat in 2010, KU Best Performer of the institution award conferred by the Governor of J&K in 2010 and Kasumigaura International Prize from the Govt. of Japan in 2009.

The Vice-chancellor was born in Kashmir on 13 April, 1964 and is married to Shaheena Kausar who has an interest in plants and cookery. They have two children; a daughter Baseerat who is doing her Ph.D in Atmospheric Physics at the TROPOS, Germany and a son Faisal, who is an undergraduate student at the University of Waterloo, Canada studying Pure Mathematics.