Prof. C N R Rao Distinguished Lecture Series
Prof. C. N. R. Rao Lecture Series was instituted to honor a distinguished IIT Kanpur faculty member each year who delivers a lecture to the Institute's academic community. Prof. C. N. R. Rao completed his M.Sc. from Banaras Hindu University in 1953 and his Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1958. He began his academic career at IISc Bangalore in 1959 and joined the Department of Chemistry at IIT Kanpur in 1963. In 1976, he returned to IISc to establish the Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit and later served as Director of IISc from 1984 to 1994. He also founded the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in 1989 and the International Centre for Materials Science in 2008. A renowned scientist, Prof. Rao has received numerous prestigious honors, including the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, Royal Medal of the Royal Society, Padma Shri, Padma Vibhushan, and India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna.
Past Speaker
Prof. Sacchida Nand Tripathi
Prof. Sachchida Nand Tripathi spoke on the topic "From Wisdom to Algorithms: The Future of Indian Cities". He is the inaugural Dean of Kotak School of Sustainability at IIT Kanpur and Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and jointly with the Department of Sustainable Energy Engineering . He is currently leading the Center of Excellence on Advanced Technologies for Monitoring Air quality iNdicator (ATMAN) and is also the Project Director of the "AI Centre of Excellence (AI-CoE) for Sustainable Cities". His broad research areas include sustainability, aerosol cloud interaction, climate change, real-time source apportionment, AI/ML-enabled dynamic hyper-local air quality monitoring, and indigenous portable and affordable sensors development.
Prof. Bishakh Bhattacharya
Prof. Bishakh Bhattacharya from the department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Kanpur, spoke on the title "Smart Structure Unleashed: Innovating Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS)" He received his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. At IIT Kanpur, Prof. Bhattacharya has served in several key roles, including Head of the Design Programme and the Cognitive Science Programme. He currently coordinates the Space Technology Cell and the Imagineering Lab. His research interests include vibration control, structural health monitoring, robotics and automation, intelligent system design, and child-robot interaction. His work has significantly contributed to the advancement of smart structures and intelligent system design in India and internationally.
Prof. Sandeep Verma
Prof. Sandeep Verma spoke on 'Bioinspired Systems for Disease Modeling and Cellular Delivery of Therapeutics' on April 13, 2018 Prof. Sandeep Verma from the Department of Chemistry at IIT Kanpur, known for pioneering work at the interface of chemical biology, peptide-based materials, and medicinal chemistry. With a PhD from the University of Illinois Chicago and postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute, his contributions span biomolecular design, innovative therapeutic pathways, and interdisciplinary chemistry. His distinguished career has earned him India's top scientific honors, including the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, JC Bose National Fellowship, the DAE-SRC Outstanding Investigator Award, the Distinguished Alumnus Award, and the National Prize for Research at the Interface of Chemistry and Biology.