Kumble R. Subbaswamy

Kumble R. Subbaswamy completed his B.S. and M.S. in India and came to Indiana University, Bloomington in the U.S. as a post-graduate student in 1971. He completed his Ph.D. in theoretical condensed matter physics in 1976.

After a stint as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, Irvine, he joined the physics faculty at the University of Kentucky in 1978. His primary research area has been the optical properties of novel materials, and nonlinear excitations; he has published more than 60 research articles and co-authored a monograph. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1989. At the University of Kentucky he served as Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences and as physics department chair before leaving in 1997 to join the University of Miami as the Dean of Arts and Sciences.

He returned to Indiana University in July 2000 as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, remaining in that position until 2006. He has held visiting appointments at the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the U.S.

In July 2006 he came back to the University of Kentucky as Provost, where he is engaged in translating its Top 20 Business Plan (drawn up in response to a legislative mandate) into reality. He was active in collaborative projects in the Association of American Universities, and serves on the Board of Directors of National Association of College and University Business Officers. He is currently the Chair of the South Eastern Conference Academic Consortium. Among topics of particular interest to him are strategic planning, responsibility centered management budgeting, internationalization, and interdisciplinary research.