K. Ashok Vardhan Shetty  is a former Vice-Chancellor of the Indian Maritime University, Chennai, a Central University under the Ministry of Shipping. Before assuming charge as the Vice-Chancellor, Shetty was a member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Tamil Nadu Cadre, of the 1983 batch. Prior to his retirement from the IAS, he held a number of key assignments including Registrar, University of Madras, Director of Collegiate Education; District Collector, Viluppuram; Director of Rural Development; Managing Director, Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation, (TASMAC); Secretary, Chief Minister's Secretariat; Principal Secretary, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department; Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration and Water Supply, among others. Successful project implementation was his forte. He was commended by the Government of Tamil Nadu several times. Shetty has published several articles on public administration, management, E-Government, popular science, and popular mathematics in leading English and Tamil publications such as The Hindu , The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, The Hindu - Tamil , The Hindustan Times , Indian Express , The Hindu BusinessLine , Deccan Herald, Deccan Chronicle , The Times of India, and (the now defunct magazine) Science Today.