ODU Faculty Member Elected Chair of Sanitation Commission

Vishnu K. Lakdawala, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Old Dominion University, has been elected chair of the Hampton Roads Sanitation District Commission.

Lakdawala, who is in the final year of his second four-year appointment as an HRSD commissioner, will serve as chair until June 30, 2010. B. Anne Davis of Portsmouth was elected vice-chair.

Appointed by the governor, the eight-member HRSD sets policy for the regional utility, which provides wastewater treatment services for 17 cities and counties in southeast Virginia.

A member of the Old Dominion faculty since 1983, Lakdawala has served as graduate program director and is currently the chief departmental adviser. Prior to joining ODU, he was a senior research associate at the University of Liverpool and a postdoctoral research associate at the Atomic Molecular and High Voltage Physics Group at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Lakdawala received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Bangalore University, India, a master's in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Science and a Ph.D. from the University of Liverpool, United Kingdom.