New Delhi, July 1: Gautam Biswas, director of the Central Mechanical Engineering and Research Institute, Durgapur, is set to become the next director of IIT Guwahati.

He is scheduled to replace Gautam Barua whose 10-year term ended yesterday.

A panel headed by HRD minister M.M. Pallam Raju picked Biswas for the job. President Pranab Mukherjee, the Visitor of the institute, will have to clear the appointment, after which Biswas will get a five-year term, sources said.

Biswas did his Master’s and PhD from IIT Kharagpur. A faculty at IIT Kanpur, Biswas served as dean of academics there. Since 2009, he has been serving as director of CMERI, a research lab of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Biswas will bring to his new job his experience and research in computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer. He is a member of all three science academies in India as well as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Biswas was a contender for director of IIT Kharagpur till P.P. Chakrabarti was picked last year. But Chakrabarti’s appointment has been mired in controversy because he is yet to be cleared by the vigilance wing in a case of irregularity. Till he is cleared, S.K. Som will serve as the director in charge of IIT Kharagpur.

IIT Guwahati is comparatively younger among the tech schools and is still in the developing stage. But it has started showing signs of excellence in both teaching and research.