Joy Gill Chair
Mr. Ajit S Gill (BT/EE/1969) is the CEO of Ohm Oncology, California, a company that specializes in oncology and neoplasms by developing novel drugs for the management of treatment - refractory and difficult to treat cancers. Mr. Gill has also served as the CEO & President of Nektar Therapeutics, and Vice-President and General Manager of Kodak's Interactive systems. After graduating from IITK, Mr. Gill earned his MS from University of Nebraska and MBA from University of Ontario, Canada.
Mr. Ajit S. Gill set up the Joy Gill Chair under Joy and Manmohan Gill Endowment Fund. The Chair position is for outstanding young investigators under the age of 45 years in any area of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering.
Current Occupant
Prof. Nitin Gupta
(Sep. 2025-Sep. 2028)
Dr. Nitin Gupta from the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, IIT Kanpur. His research focuses on understanding the brain mechanisms underlying innate olfactory preferences in animals. His lab also works on developing automated digital interventions for mental health disorders, such as depression.
He earned his B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Kanpur and his Ph.D. in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology from the University of California, San Diego. He has been recognized with several honors, including the Excellence-in-Teaching Award, the S. Ramachandran National Bioscience Award for Career Development, the C.N.R. Rao Faculty Award, and the Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award (IYBA).
Former Occupant
Dr. Bushra Ateeq
April 2022 - April 2025
Dr. Bushra Ateeq, Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, research interests include exploration of the genetic and epigenetic changes that initiate cancer progression, and understanding the molecular events that drive resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs.
Dr. Ateeq is the recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Medical Sciences (2020), the highest Indian science award conferred by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India. She has also received several other prestigious awards, such as Sun Pharma Science Foundation Research Award (2021), N. Ramachandran-National Bioscience Award (2020), OPPI-Scientist Award (2021), CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute Award (2020), ICMR-Basanti Devi Amir Chand Prize in Biomedical Sciences (2019) and Sayeeda Begum Woman Scientist Prize (2019) for the excellence in research. She is an Elected Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI) and the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (IASc). She earned her doctorate from the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh in 2003.