Faculty Honours and Awards

Silver Jubilee Reunion - Class-of-86

Silver Jubilee Reunion Class-of-86 was celebrated at IIT Kanpur from 25th – 27th December, 2010. The three day alumni event witnessed a large gathering of over 100 alumni from India as well as from abroad. The alumni were thrilled to visit their former Institute, where they had spent some of their most precious years as students. They were full of fond memories and nostalgically recalled the good time they had here. The family members of the alumni were equally enthusiastic and went around visiting the classrooms, laboratories and other facilities, happy to experience the sprawling campus with its unspoiled rich flora and its extensive infrastructure. Several events were organized to make the alumni reunion memorable, including a trip to the historical sights of Bithoor. The alumni also planted saplings in the orchards of IIT Kanpur to commemorate six of their batch mates who are no more; a yoga session was organized where Mr. Rajesh Khosla spoke on Sahaj Yoga and guided the audience in a Sahaj Yoga meditation; Mr. Pramath Raj Sinha conducted a session on leadership; Ms. Uttara Nerurkar gave a lecture on “Knowledge advancements in Ancient India” and an interactive session with the Dean of Resource Planning and Generation was held at the Outreach auditorium. Students also got an opportunity to interact with the eminent alumni of the 1986 batch. The alumni revisited their student days by playing games like phatta cricket, basket ball and golf with much zest and enjoyment. A carnival was organized for the ladies and young children with various activities like mehandi and tattoo application, hair braiding and discussions with an astrologer. Some cultural performances were also hosted by the alumni and their families, thus making the reunion even more eventful and memorable.

Hari Sahasrabuddhe Lecture Series: Prof. Richard M. Karp, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with additional appointments in the Departments of Mathematics and of Bioengineering and Operations Research, University of California, Berkeley gave a talk titled The Unexplained Success of Heuristic Algorithms for NP-Hard Combinatorial Optimization Problems on 2nd January, 2011. Prof. Karp is among the most eminent computer scientists in the world, notable for his research in the theory of algorithms, for which he received the Turing Award in 1985. Among his many prominent discoveries was the Edmonds-Karp Algorithm for solving the max-flow problem on networks in 1971. In the lecture, Prof. Karp described certain heuristic algorithms for solving a class of optimization problems. He observed that even though the optimization problems are NP-hard, the heuristic algorithms seem to produce a good solution efficiently, and concluded by posing the problem of proving this remarkable property.

Prof. Manindra Agrawal, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, has been awarded the Humboldt Research Award (Humboldt Forschungpreis in German).

Prof. G. Biswas, Mechanical Engineering Department, currently Director, CMERI, Durgapur, has been awarded the National J. C. Bose Fellowship by the Department of Science and Technology.

Prof. T. K. Chandrashekar, Department of Chemistry, currently Director, NISER Bhubaneshwar, has been awarded the D. S. Kothari Gold Medal of the Indian Science Congress Association.

Prof. V. Chandrasekhar, Department of Chemistry has been awarded the Prof. R. C. Mehrotra Commemoration Lecture Award of the Indian Science Congress Association.

Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Department of Chemical Engineering, has been selected for the 'MRSI Distinguished Lecturership' award by the President, Materials Research Society of India.

Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Department of Chemical Engineering, received the R. C. Mehrotra Memorial Life Time Achievement Award of the Indian Science Congress Association.

Prof. Sandeep Verma, Department of Chemistry, has been elected to the fellowship of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore.

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New Deans

Prof. Manindra Agrawal, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, took over as the new Dean, Resource Planning and Generation in January, 2011. His research interests are in the area of Complexity Theory, Computational Number Theory, Cryptography, Complex Analysis, and Combinatorics.
Homepage: http://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/manindra/

 

 

Prof. V. Chandrasekhar, Department of Chemistry, took over as the new Dean, Faculty Affairs in January, 2011. His research interests are in the area of Organometallic Chemistry, Inorganic Rings and Polymers, Multi-metal and Organoelement assemblies and Inorganic Core supported Star-bursts.
Homepage: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~vc/

 

 

Prof. Ajit Chaturvedi, Department of Electrical Engineering, took over as the new Dean, Research and Development in January, 2011. His research interests are in the area of Communications theory and Systems, Mobile communications and Spread spectrum systems.
Homepage: http://www.iitk.ac.in/ee/faculty/akc/AKC/akc.html

 

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New Heads

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New Scholarships

Class-of-1984 Scholarship: Four student scholarships have been instituted by the class-of-84 to be awarded on a merit-cum-means basis.

Class-of-1984 Fellow: This fellowship has been instituted by the class-of-84 for an outstanding junior faculty member in any discipline who either demonstrates great potential for high quality original research or has a track record of high quality original research.

S. Y. Jakatdar Memorial Scholarship: Smt. Vidula S. Jakatdar, mother of Mr. Priyadarshan Jakatdar (BT/EE/1979), has instituted a merit-cum-means scholarship in memory of her husband, Sri S. Y. Jakatdar. The scholarship is for a final year student of Mechanical Engineering specializing in Automotive Engineering.

 

 

Dr. Elizabeth and Dr. Varkey Cherian (SURGE Scholarship): Mr. Cherian Mathew (BT/CSE/ 2008) has instituted a scholarship in the name of his parents, Dr. Elizabeth and Dr. Varkey Cherian for the best SURGE project.

Dr. Elizabeth and Dr. Varkey Cherian Award: Mr. Cherian Mathew (BT/CSE/ 2008) has instituted a convocation award in the name of his parents, Dr. Elizabeth and Dr. Varkey Cherian to be given for the best student project.

 

Padmavathy and R. Sankar Scholarship: Dr. Sri Ram Sankar (BT/CS/1983) and Dr. Uma Rajnam Sankar have instituted a merit-cum-means scholarship in the name of his parents Smt. Padmavathy and Prof. Sankar who lived in the campus between 1975 and 1985. Prof. Sankar was a professor in the Department of Computer Science.

 

 

Arakere Vasudev Research Fellowship: Dr. D. S. Hur, Chairman and CEO of CS Caltex Corporation, Korea has set up two Research Fellowships in honour of Mr. Jagjeet S. Bindra (BT/CHE/69). Mr. Bindra has in turn named one Research Fellowship as the Arakere Vasudev Research Fellowship in honour of his teacher Prof. Arakere Vasudev, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Kanpur (1965 - 1970).

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Inter IIT Sports Meet

46th Inter IIT Sports Meet: The Inter-IIT Sports Meet is held every winter and is hosted by any one of the IITs. The Inter-IIT Aquatics Meet is held separately but is considered a part of the main Meet and a general championship is awarded on the basis of performance in both events. IIT Delhi organized the Meet this year, from 15th - 20th December, 2010 as part of its golden jubilee celebration while the aquatics meet 2010 was held in IIT Rourkee from 2nd - 5th of October, 2010. IIT Kanpur improved upon its performance of last year, amassing a total of 53.16 points in the final Men's General Championship tally, finishing fourth. It bagged a gold in badminton for the first time. It also won a gold in water polo, a silver in swimming, football and tennis, and a bronze in cricket. In the women's category, IIT Kanpur finished fifth, with a final tally of 21.16 points which included a silver in Badminton and in athletics. IIT Kanpur secured first position in the March Past event held during the opening ceremony of the Meet. The General Championship was won by IIT Chennai.

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Obituary

Prof. K. V. G. K Gokhale, died of brain haemorrhage on 25th December 2010 in Hyderabad. He did his M.Tech. and Ph.D. in Applied Geology from IIT Kharagpur and served there as a faculty member for a few years. In 1966 he joined IIT Kanpur and was instrumental in starting a Geology curriculum in the Department of Civil Engineering. He was the Head of the Department during 1991-1994. Prof. Gokhale wrote two books, one on 'Ore Deposits of India' and the other on 'Experiments in Engineering Geology'. After his retirement in 1996 he joined NIT Hamirpur and later moved to Hyderabad where he established an excellent Geology program in one of the colleges there. Prof. Gokhale is survived by his wife Mrs. Sita Gokhale, two sons and a daughter.

The Institute expresses its deepest condolences to the bereaved family of Prof. Gokhale and prays for the peace of the departed soul.