MEET THE DEAN

Dr. Ramanarayanan (‘Vish’) Viswanathan obtained his B.E. degree in Electronics and Communication from University of Madras, India in 1975, M.E. degree in Electrical Communication from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India in 1977, and Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX in 1983. Since 1983 he has been with Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where he is a Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering. He spent the 1998-99 academic year as a Professor in the Division of Engineering, University of Texas at San Antonio. He assumed the current position of Interim Dean of the College in January 2008.

Dr. Viswanathan was involved in several digital communications projects while working as a deputy engineer at Bharat Electronics Limited, Bangalore, India from 1977 through 1980. He teaches courses related to communications and signal processing. He has made significant research contributions in the areas of signal detection and wireless communications over the past twenty five years. He is a Fellow of IEEE.

Dr. Viswanathan is a registered professional engineer in the state of Illinois. He served as the President of the Faculty Senate, SIUC from April 2007 until December 2007. Originally a native of India, he resides in Carbondale with his wife and two daughters.