Rome: Jesuit Father Jacob Srampickal, head of the department of Communication Studies and professor at Gregorian University Rome, yesterday passed away in Austria. He was 62. He had become critically ill and was hospitalized in Vienna ten days ago while on a visit to Austria.Fr Srampickal had headed several media organizations and taught communications in India and abroad.In February, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India appointed the Patna Jesuit priest director of its media training institute NISCORT (national institute for social communication, research and training). He was expected to take charge in June 2012.The Jesuit was the inspiration behind the institute and was a co-founder along with Fr. John Noronha, former director of Caritas India. He was the first dean of the institute based at Vaishali, a satellite town of Delhi in Uttar Pradesh state.He has served on the ecumenical jury at international film festivals and has served as one of the consultants to the Pontifical Commission for Social Communications.He was president of the Indian unit of UNDA/OCIC, the earlier version of Signis, the Church’s international association for social communication, for six years until 1998.