Umang Gupta Chair at IIT Kanpur Umang Gupta (BT/CHE/1971) has set up a faculty chair at IITK. He is currently Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Keynote Systems (NASDAQ: KEYN), the worldwide leader in Internet and mobile test and measurement services, since 1997. Umang received his B.Tech. in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Kanpur in 1971 and his M.B.A. from Kent State University in Ohio, USA in 1972. In 1996, Umang received the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur for his outstanding contributions to Information Technology and entrepreneurial achievements.

Past Occupant of Umang Gupta Chair

Professor Vinod K Singh Department of Chemistry Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur Kanpur - 208016, India Phone: +91-512-59-7291/6808 Email: vinodks@iitk.ac.in Webpage: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~vinodks

Born on 9th September 1959 in a small village, Professor Vinod Kumar Singh did his early schooling from his native place - Anantpur in district Azamgarh, U.P. He passed high school and intermediate from the Wesley Inter College and B.Sc. from D.A.V. College, both being in Azamgarh. After completing M.Sc. (Chemistry) from B.H.U. in 1980, he joined Malti-Chem Research Center in Nandesari, Baroda for Ph.D. program under the guidance of Dr. Sukh Dev. He was subsequently awarded the degree in 1986. Professor Singh then spent two years (1985-1987) in Canada, working as a research fellow at University of Calgary and University of British Columbia. He later moved to Harvard University to work with Nobel Laureate, Professor E. J. Corey as a post-doctoral fellow during 1987-1990. After a brief stint as a senior scientist at Neurogen Corporation, USA, Prof Singh joined IIT Kanpur as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, on December 26, 1990.  He was promoted to an Associate Professor in May 1997 and to a full Professor in September 2001.  Professor Singh's work is in an area of synthetic organic chemistry, more specifically asymmetric synthesis. He has developed several new chiral ligands/catalysts for enantioselective reactions. He has also accomplished total synthesis of several bioactive natural products. His research group has produced about 100 papers in peer-reviewed international journals. In addition to research, he has also taught many core and elective courses at the institute. Professor Singh's work has been recognized in the form of several awards and honors such as Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award (2003), Rajib Goyal Prize (2002), and Swarnajayanti Fellowship Award (1998). In addition, he has been elected as a Fellow of National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad (FNASc) and Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (FASc).