New Faculty Senate President Vallabh Das

Vallabh Das, Benedict-Pitts Professor and Chair of the Department of Vision Sciences in the College of Optometry, is the new president of the University of Houston Faculty Senate for the 2021-2022 term.

He received his undergraduate degree from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India majoring in electrical engineering. He completed a master’s and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University.

Professor Das joined UH in 2009.

“We can all take pride in the fact that shared governance works exceedingly well at UH,” said Das. “It is my objective that the Faculty Senate continues to be the safe space where varied viewpoints can be expressed freely.” In addition to providing communication channels between faculty and central administration on various current issues, Das hopes to focus on revamping the Faculty Senate website to better reflect its various functions and establishing a leadership pipeline program to attract more faculty members into the organization.

At UH, Das has been a longtime member of the Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee as well as a veteran member of the Faculty Senate.

He lives in Sugar Land with his wife, who works in corporate finance, a daughter who is a sophomore at Duke University, a son who is a sophomore at Dulles High School Math & Science Academy and two adopted dogs. He and his wife enjoy taking long walks with their dogs and taking family vacations that involve hiking in the national parks. He has recently taken up scroll sawing as a hobby.