Prof. V K Vaidyan

Professor Varghese Kurian VAIDYAN (b. 1947), Palavilayil, Thevalakkara belongs to Thevalakkara Mappilla Veettil VAIDYAN family.

Thevalakkara is a small village situated by the side of the Ashtamuti lake in Kollam district (Kerala State, INDIA). It was a part of DESINGANAD (Capital: Kollam) in 17^th century. There were eighteen mattoms (Brahmin houses) (Thazhamangalathu, Perumpally, Edappally, Puthusserry, Punnakkattu, etc.) in that area. Krishnan Nampoodiri and his wife Lakshmi Antharjanam (from Kothamangalam) of Thazhamangalathu mattam got attracted to the teachings of Christ and accepted Christianity. Thomman (Jr.), the only son of Krishnan (Thomman) and Lakshmi (Mariyam) learned Sanskrit and Medicine from Viratarajaguru and became a famous scholar and physician. During this period, Maharaja of Travancore invited Thomman (Jr.) to treat King-mother’s eye disease. Thomman succeeded in relieving the eye pain of the King-mother in first attempt itself. Pleased by this, the King gave the title “Vaidyan” to Thomman and his successors. Prof. Vaidyan belongs to eighth generation of Thomman Vaidyan.

Prof. Vaidyan is the son of K G Varghese Vaidyan and Kunjannamma Varghese. K G Varghese served Govt. of India as Scietific Officer of IGS Laboratories at Bombay, Kanpur, New Delhi and Madras. Mrs. Kunjannamma Varghese belogs to Meenathethil Family (Chettikulagara, Mavelikara). Prof. Vaidyan has two younger brothers: Dr Mathew Varghese Vaidyan (National Institute of Technology, Kozhikkode) and Dr Alexander Varghese Vaidyan (St. Stephen’s College, Pathanapuram).

Mrs. Mary P Alex, wife of Prof. Vaidyan, belongs to Kizhakkedathu family (Kottarakkara). Their daughter Ms. Ancy Kurian BTech (Electronics) is continuing her studies at Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management (Kerala), Trivandrum.

Prof. Vaidyan had his school education at High & Training School, Chettikulagara and college education at Fatima Mata National College, Kollam (1961-67). Before joining Indian Institute of Technology, Madras as a Research Scholar in 1968, he worked as a Lecturer at FMN College during 1967-68. He completed his PhD work in a record time of two years and continued as a CSIR Senior Research Fellow.

Prof. Vaidyan joined University of Calicut as Lecturer in the newly launched Physics Department in 1971. In 1978, University of Kerala appointed him as Reader and in 1984 as Professor under the scheme ‘Promotion of teachers with outstanding merit’. He was the Visiting Fellow of the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology (UMIST), UK during 1983-84. In recognition on his contributions in Materials Science and Physics Education, Institute of Physics (London) elected him as its Fellow and Chartered Physicist. Now, he is the senior-most Professor of the University.