Gireesh Jankinath Chair
Mr. Ravindra Nath Akhoury (BT/EE/1968) was the Chairman & CEO of MacKay Shields, a multimillion product investment management firm. Known for his investment management business skills, Mr. Akhoury worked with high-ranking multinational corporates such as Fischer, Francis, Tress & Watts, and Equitable Life as Vice-President. After obtaining B.Tech degree from IITK, Mr. Akhoury obtained an MS in Quantitative Methods from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Mr. Akhoury instituted Gireesh Jankinath Chair in the memory of his late mother. The Chair is open to all the departments of engineering & sciences.
Current Occupant
Prof. Arjun Bagchi
(Sep. 2025-Sep. 2028)
Prof. Arjun Bagchi from the Department of Physics, IIT Kanpur. His research area focuses on the understanding of quantum gravity using different tools. His collaborators and group here at IIT Kanpur made contributions in the construction of the holographic principle for asymptotically flat spacetimes and the understanding of string theory in the very high energy regime. He completed his PhD at the Harish Chandra Research Institute in erstwhile Allahabad following postdoctoral studies at University of Edinburgh, UK. Prof. Bagchi received CNR Rao Faculty Award in 2020 from IIT Kanpur.
Former Occupant
Prof. Kallol Mondal
April 2022- April 2025
Prof. Kallol Mondal, Department of Material Science and Engineering, research interest lies in Physical Metallurgy, Corrosion and Oxidation of Metals and Alloys and thermodynamics of Glassy alloys. He has been actively involved in developing improved steels for rails and clips for Indian Rail. He is a recipient of P. K. Kelkar Young Faculty Research Fellowship, Satish Chandra Agarwal Chair at IIT Kanpur and Mascot National Award by Electrochemical Society of India. He earned his doctorate in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 2005.