IITB ChairProfessor

Chair Professors

IndIan InstItute of technology BomBay

Chair Professors at IIT Bombay

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Introduction

chaIr professors

chair is the term given to endowed professorships. It has a rich history and prestige that has remained unchanged over the years. The first endowed professorships in basic science and medicine were established in 1546 by Henry VIII. Later, private individuals began donating the funds for chairs, with one of the firsts being the Lucasian Chair in Mathematics, given to Sir Isaac Newton in 1669.

The honor of being appointed to an endowed chair has not changed through the years. It is one of the highest honours awarded in the academic arena and is reserved for the top faculty members at IIT Bombay as an acknowledgment of their signal contributions in research and teaching.

The prestige of an endowed chair also lends an additional cachet to the departments. It helps to attract the best and brightest young students and investigators thus securing the future of the institution. It is clear why endowed Chairs are an essential constituent of IIt Bombay. This is what would be seen in many other outstanding educational institutions worldwide.

how IT works

Appointments to the Chairs are made by a committee headed by the Director of IIt Bombay, with field experts and institute functionaries as members and a nominee of the donor as an observer.

Selection is based on peer reviews of the overall research achievements and other achievements in the recent past. Contributions made to the growth of the institute are given due weightage.

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c h a i r p r o f e s s o r s

In addition, IIT Bombay has also created an equal number of Institute Chairs.

1st Batch (Class of 1962) P.K. Kelkar Chair

L&T Chair

Forbes Marshall Chair

Rahul Bajaj Chair

G.K. Devrajulu Chair

Kamalnayan Bajaj Chair

Ramkrishna Bajaj Chair

D.L. Shah Chair for Innovation

Pramod Chaudhari Chair

Praj Industries Chair

S.M. Nilekani Chair

Bajaj Group Chair

Major Bhagat Singh Rekhi Chair

J.R. Isaac Chair

Shailesh Mehta Chair

Vijay & Sita Vashi Chair

mhRd IPR Chair

Dhrumil Gandhi Chair

Romesh Wadhwani Chair

Madhuri Sinha Chair

Chair Professors 2010IIt Bombay has 40 Chairs. Of these, 18 have already been filled. The following 20 Chairs have been established with generous donations from alumni and other friends of the institute:

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academIc Background

B.Tech, IIt Kanpur, 1968 M.S, University of Pennsylvania, usa, 1970 Ph.D, University of Pennsylvania, usa, 1972

research InTeresTs

Multi-objective optimization of industrial processes On-line optimizing control of polymerization reactors Modeling of complex polymerization systems Bio-mimetic approaches in genetic algorithm and simulated annealing

L&T Chair Professor

c h e m i c a l e n g i n e e r i n g

Prof. Santosh Kumar Gupta 2010

aBouT prof. gupTa

prof. gupta is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore; the National Academy of Sciences, India; and the Indian National Academy of Engineering, New Delhi. He is a recipient of the Herdillia Award of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers for Excellence in Basic Research in Chemical Engineering. He has served as Visiting Professor at the University of Notre Dame, the National University of Singapore and the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Prof. Gupta has made outstanding theoretical and experi-mental contributions to fundamental understanding in the general area of polymerization reaction engineering, and optimization using evolutionary techniques, with almost 200 research papers in high-impact refereed journals. He has developed experimental methodologies for the on-line state estimation and optimal control of polymerization reactors, and for the vapor-liquid equilibrium of polymerizing systems. Some of his innovative research has found place in under-graduate-level textbooks.

Prof. Gupta was a faculty member at IIt Kanpur from 1973 to 2008. He has been a professor at IIt Bombay since 2008. His teaching acumen combined with his concern for students has led to the publication of six well-recognized and affordable quality-textbooks for students in India. He has motivatedundergraduates to do outstanding fundamental research resulting in publications in reputed international journals. Indeed, he is a role model for several generations of students.

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academIc Background

B.Tech, IIt Bombay, 1969 Ph.D, IIt Bombay, 1974

research InTeresTs

Building large scale circuit simulators, Large scale system partitioningCombinatorial optimization including submodular function theory

Kamal Nayan Bajaj Chair Professor

e l e c t r i c a l e n g i n e e r i n g

Prof. Hari Narayanan 2010

aBouT prof. narayanan

prof. narayanan is well known for his work on matroids, submodular functions, system partitioning and for the applica-tion of graph theoretical techniques to computer-aided design of Very Large Scale Integrated circuits (VlsI). He has super-vised the development of a circuit simulator (BItsIm 1992) particularly suited for the analysis of large circuits through iterative methods. He has also applied circuit theoretical solutions to combinatorial optimization problems. He is the author of the monograph, Submodular Functions and Electrical Networks (North Holland, 1997). More recently he is engaged with the solution of very large (of the order of a million nodes) specialized circuits such as those containing diodes and linear static devices, and with dynami-cal system computations using implicit methods.

Prof. H. Narayanan has been a faculty member at IIt Bombay since 1974. He was a visiting faculty with the eecs Department at uc Berkeley, Berkeley, California during 1983–1985. He was the Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIt Bombay between 2000 and 2003. A recipient of the award for Excellence in Teaching at IIt Bombay in 1998, he is known to be a compassionate teacher. He is especially concerned with disturbed and disadvantaged students and is involved in coun-seling and to help them with their problems. Currently, he is coordinating an institute-wide effort for helping students who face academic problems.

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academIc Background

B.Tech, IIt Bombay, 1969Ph.D, Johns Hopkins University, 1973

research InTeresTs

NanoelectronicsFlash memory devicesNanoscale cmos devices for ulsI applicationsSilicon-on-insulator (soI) mos devicesReliability of nano-scale cmos devicesModeling and simulation of nanoscale cmos devices

1st Batch (1962) P. K. Kelkar Chair Professorfor Nanotechnology

e l e c t r i c a l e n g i n e e r i n g

Prof. J. M. Vasi 2010

aBouT prof. vasI

prof. vasi has played an important role in the initiation and growth of Nanoelectronics at IIt Bombay and in the country. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (Ieee), the Indian National Academy of Engineering (Inae), and the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (Iete). He was elected to The Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 1993.

Prof. Vasi has received IIt Bombay’s Award for Excellence in Teaching twice, as also the Mathur Award for Excellence in Research. Additionally he was awarded the National Sreenivasan Memorial Award of Iete in 1997, and the TechnoVisionary Award of the India Semiconductor Association in 2008.

Prof. Vasi has been a faculty member at IIt Bombay since 1981. Before joining IIt Bombay he taught at IIt Delhi and Johns Hopkins University. He has been an Editor of the pres-tigious journal 'Ieee Transactions on Electron Devices' and a Distinguished Lecturer of the Ieee Electron Devices Society. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet of the Government of India.

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academIc Background

B.Arch, University of Mumbai, 1966

research InTeresTs

Product designMetal imagery and visualisationCommunication theoryDesign process and methodsProduct planningProduct semanticsDesign and culture

Ramkrishna Bajaj Chair Professor

i n d u s t r i a l d e s i g n c e n t r e

Prof. Uday A. Athavankar 2010

aBouT prof. aThavankar

prof. athavank ar received the Award for Excellence in consultancy, by the President of India in 2004; the third prize for Edugame Design competition, Israel, in 1973; and the Best Paper Award, Conference in Vienna in 1996.

In his research, Prof. Athavankar has been exploring the relationship between cognitive science, linguistics and design decision. Using cognitive theories as a framework, he has focused on areas like ‘product semantics’ and ‘object and culture relationship’. His present work includes exploring the role of mental imagery, spatial intelligence and visual thinking in design problem solving.

Prof. Athvankar's current projects are in the field of local-ization (India and Asia Pacific) of global products from companies such as ncR, Unilever, Samsung and Nokia. The products he is working on include robotic toys and thinking games for children. He has also collaborated on the develop-ment of personal locket that collects ecg data, table-top small ecg machine, bio-metric authorization device, variable frequency light table and night vision goggles for the vision impaired.

Prof. Athvankar has been a faculty member at IIt Bombay since 1970. Besides research publications, he is on the edito-rial board of two international journals on design research.

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academIc Background

B.E, College of Engineering, Anantapur 1961–66Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial Design, nId, 1970

research InTeresTs

Product design, Creativity and problem solving Bamboo craftsExperiential learningCraft education

D. L. Shah Chair Professor for Innovation

i n d u s t r i a l d e s i g n c e n t r e

Prof. A. G. Rao 2010

aBouT prof. rao

prof. rao has been responsible for shaping the M.Des. programme at IIt Bombay from its inception. He has designed over 20 products for industry including the Elect-ronic Voting Machine. He has published several papers in National and International Conferences and is a Member of the International Journal of Bamboo and Rattan. He has authored two books— IDC: A decade of Design and Bamboo Craft Design. He is actively engaged in bringing 'experiential education' into school curriculum. He has been conducting experiential learning workshops on topics like symmetry, tangram, golden proportion and bamboo craft with special-ly designed kits. He believes that by integrating crafts with other subjects like Mathematics in experiential mode can make school education meaningful to craft communities.

Prof. Rao has been a faculty member at IIt Bombay since 1970. He studied Creativity and Problem Solving at mIt (Cambridge) and at other places in usa under a unesco fellowship. Additionally, he studied bamboo craft in the North East and developed tools and small technologies for it under a undP project. Prof. Rao has conducted over 30 workshops in Bamboo Craft all over the country and started a ‘Bambu Studio' at Idc. He has also incubated a compa-ny ‘ag Bambu Style’ under the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (sIne), IIt Bombay.

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academIc Background

B.E, Burdwan University, 1970M.Sc, Birmingham University, 1973Ph.D, IIt Bombay, 1980

research InTeresTs

Linear elastic fracture mechanicsElastic-plastic fracture mechanicsInterface fractureFracture of compositesFinite element methodsBoundary element methodsCrack detectionMicro and nano-fracture mechanics

G.K. Devrajulu Chair Professor

m e c h a n i c a l e n g i n e e r i n g

Prof. Suriya Kumar Maiti 2010

aBouT prof. maITI

prof. maiti is a Fellow of the American Society of Mech-anical Engineers (2008), the Indian National Academy of Engineering (1996), and the Institution of Engineers, India (1994).

Prof. Maiti is also a receipient of IIt Bombay's Excellence in Teaching Award (2006). He received the Postdoctoral Fellowship of Cambridge University in 1982, Royal Society Commonwealth Bursary for Postdoctoral Research in 1981, the first prize in the 2nd All India Design Competition for Engineering Students in 1970, National Scholarship for Postgraduate Study Abroad in 1972, and Burdwan University Gold Medal in Mechanical Engineering in 1970.

Prof. Maiti has been a faculty member at IIt Bombay since 1975. He moved to the institute after serving at Tata Motors, earlier named as telco Ltd., Jamshedpur, as a design engi-neer from 1974 to 1975. He has authored over 100 papers in refereed journals. He has guided over a dozen Ph.Ds and more than 50 M.Techs.

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academIc Background

B.E, VJtI, Bombay University, 1967M.Sc (Tech.), University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, 1969Ph.D (dIc), Imperial College of Science and Technology, 1973

research InTeresTs

Enhanced heat transferComputational fluid flow and heat/mass transfer Computational solidification and melting Energy systems Choice of technology

Rahul Bajaj Chair Professor

m e c h a n i c a l e n g i n e e r i n g

Prof. A. W. Date 2010

aBouT prof. daTe

prof. date is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (fnae), 2001. He received the Excellence in Teaching Award, IIt Bombay, in 2006.

He has made outstanding contributions to fundamentals of computational fluid dynamics (cfd) and has written an important textbook in the area published by Cambridge University Press. He was also invited to contribute a chap-ter on cfd in the Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology (2008 edition).

Prof. Date has been a faculty member at IIt Bombay since 1973. He is the founder and current head of the Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Area (ctaRa). He has made important contributions in the field of rural technology development and has inspired several generations of stu-dents to work on problems of rural areas.

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academIc Background

B.Sc, Banaras Hindu University, 1971M.Sc, IIt Delhi, 1973Ph.D, University of Delhi, 1978

research InTeresTs

Magnetic properties of nano-crystalline ferrite thin filmsMagnetic materials for recording applicationsFerromagnetic resonance in magnetic thin films & multilayersMagnetic properties and electrical transport in amorphous magnetic materials

Institute Chair Professor

p h y s i c s

Prof. Shiva Prasad

aBouT prof. prasad

prof. prasad and his co-workers have made significant contribution towards understanding the electrical and mag-netic properties of various magnetic materials. After joining IIt Bombay, he became interested in the role played by early 3-d transition metals doping in amorphous magnetic mate-rials. Many important results were obtained by his team in this area. Later he changed his interest to magnetic thin films and formed a group which developed the growth facility of ferrite thin films in the institute. Various aspects of magnet-ic behaviour of these films were studied by them when the grain sizes are in the nano-crystalline range. They showed that by changing the deposition parameters, the texture and magnetic properties can be significantly altered. They were also successful in obtaining higher than bulk magnetization in some of the ferrite thin films. His group showed that the magnetic order of Zn ferrite films can be changed from anti-ferromagnetic to ferromagnetic when the grain size is in a particular range.

Prof. Prasad has more than hundred publications in presti-gious journals to his credit. He also received the Excellence in Teaching award of IIt Bombay twice (in 1999 and in 2003).

Prof. Prasad has been a faculty member at IIt Bombay since 1980. Before joining IIt Bombay, he worked as a Post-Doctoral researcher at Laboratoire de Magnetisme, cnRs, Bellevue, France, during 1977–79 and as IBm Research Fellow at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, usa during 1979–80.

2010

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academIc Background

B.Sc, Scottish Church College, Calcutta University, 1964 M.Sc, IIt Kharagpur, 1966 BaRc Training School, Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Bombay, 1967 Ph.D, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, 1973

research InTeresTs

Magnon bound states; resistivity of liquid metalsDynamic response of uniform & non-uniform electron systemsem radiation fields at interfacesExo-emission, Semiconductors, SuperconductivityMagnetic materials and Rare Earth Iron Garnets (RIgs)Carbon Nano-tubes and NanoparticlesElectronic energy band structure and related properties of crystalline solids


p h y s i c s

Prof. G. Mukhopadhyay 2010

aBouT prof. mukhopadhyay

prof. mukhopadhyay is the recipient of an Iaea Fellowship at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (IctP) Trieste, Italy (1972). He also received Associateship of IctP for five years (1980–85). He was a Senior Solid State Fellow for two years at IctP (1985–87).

Since 1967, he has worked on various topics of condensed matter physics such as Energy band structures of Ce; semi-conductors; magnon bound states in 1, 2 and 3-dimensions; resistivity of liquid metals; Van der Waals (VdW) interactions between particles and voids; atom or molecule and metal surface; dynamic image potentials; VdW interaction between molecule and metal surface; exo-electron emissions; impuri-ties in semiconductors; superconductivity; thermodynamic and magneto-optic properties of RIgs; Fullerenes and carbon nanotubes; and scattering and absorption of em radiation by metal, dielectric and magnetic nano-particles.

Prof. Mukhopadhyay has been a faculty member at IIt Bombay since 1978. Prior to that he was a Guest Scientist in Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden(1973–78). At IIt Bombay, he has supervised many students for Ph.D, B.Tech, and M.Sc degrees. He has more than 100 publications in presti-gious journals and conference proceedings.

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academIc Background

B.E, M.A.M. College of Engineering, 1968 M.Tech, IIt Bombay, 1971Ph.D, IIt Bombay, 1984

research InTeresTs

Impact / ballistic impact behavior of compositesStrain rate effects on the mechanical behavior of compositesHoneycomb sandwich structures with composite inserts Hybrid compositesFatigue and fracture behavior of compositesCarbon nanotube – polymer compositesThermomechanical analysis of 2D/3D woven/braided composites


e m e r i t u s f e l lo w, a e r o s pac e e n g i n e r i n g

Prof. N. K. Naik 2010

aBouT prof. naIk

prof. naik is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India and the Indian National Academy of Engineering. Further, he has been elected as a Fellow of the Aeronautical Society of India and the Institution of Engineering (India) and, Life Member of the Indian Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and is a Life Member of the Indian Society of Mechanical Engineers. He has received the Prof. H.H. Mathur award for Excellence in Research in Applied Sciences in 2006 by IIt Bombay. He has been awarded the Excellence in Aero-space Education Award 2008 by the Aeronautical Society of India. He is also a recipient of the Aerospace Engineering Division Gold Medal of the Institution of Engineers (India) for 1992–93.

Prof. Naik has completed several sponsored and industri-al projects of national importance. He is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Strain Analysis for Engineering Design, published by Professional Engineering Publishing Limited, London. He holds a patent with invention title 'Strength Enhancing Insert Assemblies', granted to him.

Prof. Naik's research papers have been published in many international archived journals. He has written a book, Woven Fabric Composites published by Technomic, usa. He has also contributed chapters to the books published by Blackie Academic and Professional, London; Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York and Woodhead Publishing Limited, Cambridge, uk.

Prof. Naik has been a faculty member at IIt Bombay since 1976. The Aircraft Production and High Velocity Impact Test Laboratories at Aerospace Engineering Department are the outcome of the singular efforts of Prof. Naik.

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academIc Background

B.Sc, University of Allahabad, 1966M.Sc, University of Allahabad, 1968Ph.D, Banaras Hindu University, 1972

research InTeresTs

Quasilinear systems of partial differential equations Nonlinear gasdynamic waves Water waves, group theoretic methods, dynamics of relaxing Radiating and electrically conducting fluids, and two-phase flows


m at h e m at i c s

Prof. V. D. Sharma 2010

aBouT prof. sharma

prof. sharma is the Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India (nasI) and the Indian National Science Academy (Insa). He has received the Award for Excellence in Teaching twice from IIt Bombay (1998 and 2003). He is a recipient of ugc-Hari-Om Ashram Trust National Award for Theoretical Sciences and the C.L. Chandna Mathematics Research Award in 1999.

Prof. Sharma’s collaboration with scholars like Prof. S.I. Pai (University of Maryland, usa) and Prof. A. Jeffrey (University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, uk) resulted in definitive theoret-ical developments and their applications to several physical situations. He and his co-workers obtained valuable insight into the role of non-uniformities and weak dissipative mech-anisms, providing a complete characterization of weak nonlinear waves, such as acceleration waves, simple waves and shock waves, modifying and generalizing several known results in the literature. This constitutes a major scientific contribution that has impacted many subsequent works in this area.

Prof. Sharma has been a faculty member at IIt Bombay since 1988. During his active research career, spanning about 35 years, Prof. Sharma has supervised 25 M.Sc disser-tations, 12 Ph.D theses, and has contributed as many as 84 research papers, most of which have been published in well-known and widely respected journals.

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academIc Background

B.A, University of Pune, 1962Ph.D (Mathematics), Harvard, 1967

research InTeresTs

Differential geometry Riemann surfaces Discontinuous groups


d i s t i n g u i s h e d v i s i t i n g p r o f e s s o r , m at h e m at i c s

Prof. Ravi S. Kulkarni 2010

aBouT prof. kulkarnI

prof. kulk arni is a Foreign Fellow of the National Acad-emy of Sciences, Allahabad. He is a member of the American Mathematical Society (ams), the Mathematical Association of America (maa), the Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, Phi Beta Kappa, Asian American Higher Educational Council, and the Society of Indian Academic in America. He has been a visiting professor at many premier universities of the world—Harvard, Princeton, Michigan, Columbia, Max-Planck Institute and others.

Prof. Kulkarni has published extensively in leading journals of Mathematics and is widely cited by other scholars in his field. He has served in many high level academic committees of Government of India. He is currently a distinguished Guest Professor at IIt Bombay and a Distinguished Professor (Hon.) at Bhaskaracharya Pratishthana, Pune. He is the Director of atm schools, National Board for Higher Mathematics (nBhm), and a Visiting Professor at the Department of Mathematics, University of Pune.

Prof. Kulkarni is an Emeritus Professor at City University of New York, usa.

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academIc Background

B.Tech, IIt Bombay, 1970M.Tech, IIt Bombay, 1972Ph.D, IIt Bombay, 1979

research InTeresTs

Optimizing compilersOperating systemsDistributed systems


co m p u t e r s c i e n c e a n d e n g i n e e r i n g

Prof. D. M. Dhamdhere 2010

aBouT prof. dhamdhere

prof. dhamdhere's research in program optimization by partial redundancy elimination and strength reduction has found its way in production compilers of programming languages. He also researches in operating systems and con-trol algorithms for use in distributed systems.

Prof. Dhamdhere has been an excellent teacher in a career that spans 38 years. He has authored several textbooks on various aspects of system software, a total of nine dis-tinct titles and editions excluding international editions and translations in Chinese and Spanish. He has authored many research papers and delivered invited talks at reput-ed research centers and universities such as the IBm Watson Research Labs, Microsoft Research at Redmond, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and the University of New South Wales. The transfer of the tech-nology for automatic generation of program analyzers developed in his research group to an It company was one of the first technology transfers at IIt Bombay.

Prof. Dhamdhere has been a faculty member at IIt Bombay since 1972. He has also taught at us universities for three years. He has been listed in the Citeseer Index (for example citeseer.ist.psu.edu/allcited.html) of most cited researchers developed by nec Research Lab, Princeton. This is a signifi-cant accomplishment for someone who has done essentially all his research in India and is unique among the faculty of his generation.

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academIc Background

B.Sc, Punjab University, 1966M.Sc, Punjab University, 1968Ph.D, IIt Kanpur, 1981

research InTeresTs

Transportation systems engineering Digital simulation Highway and traffic engineering Railways and airport engineering Economic evaluation of transportation projects gIs and Fuzzy set theory in transportation modelling Landuse-transport modelling, expert systems, artificial intelligence, microsimulation


e m e r i t u s f e l lo w, c i v i l e n g i n e e r i n g

Prof. S. L. Dhingra 2010

aBouT prof. dhIngra

prof. dhingra has been nominated as an International Engineer of the Year 2010–The International Biographical Centre (IBc) in Cambridge, England. He received the IBc Top 100 Engineers Medal in 2009. He has been awarded the Fellowship of the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (uncRd) to participate in the 5th WctR, in Yokohama, Japan. He received IIt Bombay's award for Excel-lence in Teaching in 2002. He has been the recipient of the Visvesvaraiya Award in the category 'Eminent Professor' for the year 2006.

He is a member of the Advisory Board Directorate of Urban Land Transport, Urban Development Department, Governm-ent of Karnataka, and an independent director on the Board of Directors of Pratibha Industries Ltd. He has also received the International Benefits Evaluation and Costs Management Committee Membership (IBec-Its May–June 2009).

Prof. Dhingra has been teaching since 1966 and continues to do so with fresh fervor every day. He has been a faculty member at IIt Bombay since 1985 and was Emeritus Fellow between October 2007 and December 2009.

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academIc Background

B.Sc, Allahabad University, 1962B.Tech, IIt Bombay, 1967 M.Tech, IIt Kanpur, 1969 Ph.D, IIt Bombay, 1977

research InTeresTs

Structural Engineering: solid mechanics, plates, shells, fibre reinforced polymer composites, refined higher-order theories, thermal stresses, transient dynamics, finite element and other numerical methods, use of polymer composites in construction, mechanics of composite materials and structures and computational mechanics


c i v i l e n g i n e e r i n g

Prof. Tarun Kant 2010

aBouT prof. kanT

prof. k ant was elected Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (Inae) in 1999, the Indian Academy of Sciences (Iasc) in 2004, and the Indian National Science Academy (Insa) in 2007. He is also a Fellow of The Insti-tution of Engineers and The Aeronautical Society of India (aesI). He is a Member of International Association for Computational Mechanics (Iacm) and Life Member of The Indian Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (Istam) and the Indian Society for Technical Education (Iste) and Founder Life Member of International Society for Computational Engineering and Science (Isces), the Indian Association for Computational Mechanics (Indacm) and the Indian Association for Structural Engineering (Iase). He is also a nominated Fellow of The World Innovation Foundation, uk. He has published more than 120 research papers in ref-ereed journals and about 140 in conference proceedings in diverse areas of computational structural mechanics.

Prof. Kant has received the Burmah-Shell Best Paper Prize and was awarded the 1979 Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Trust (uk) Scholarship, the 1992–93 European Commission (ec) Senior Faculty Exchange Fellowship. He also received the H.H. Mathur Award for Excellence in Research in Applied Sciences in 2006, in recognition of his outstanding work in the area of Mechanics of Composite Materials and Struct-ures. Prof. Kant received the Khosla National Award in 2009 given by IIT Roorkee for his lifetime achievement in the field of engineering.

He has been a faculty member at IIt Bombay since 1971. During his tenure he has supervised 24 Ph.D theses and over 68 M.Tech dissertations. He has Research & Citation Standing in terms of H-factor of 18 on Web of Science.

Chair Professors 2009

38 39


academIc Background

B.Tech, Bombay University, 1998M.S, University of Louisiana, 2000Ph.D (ee), University of Texas, Dallas, 2003

research InTeresTs

Metro and access optical networks. PBB-te, mPls-tP, 100 Gigabit Ethernet, multi-degree Roadms

gPon, ngPon, data centers, cloud computing, telepresence

James R. Isaac Chair Professor


Prof. Ashwin Gumaste 2009

aBouT prof. gumasTe

prof. gumaste was a Visiting Scientist and a Visiting Scholar with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (mIt), Cambridge, usa, in the Research Laboratory for Electronics–Claude-E-Shannon group from 2007 to 2009. In 2009 he also held an appointment of Associate Professor(Research) at Iowa State University. He was previously with Fujitsu Laboratories (usa) Inc., as a Member of Research Staff in the Photonics Networking Laboratory (2001–05). He has also worked with Cisco Systems in the Optical Networking Group (ong). His work on light-trails has been widely referred, deployed and recognized by both industry and academia. He has 17 granted us patents and has over 30 pending patent applications. Prof. Gumaste has published about 120 papers in refereed conferences and journals.

Prof. Gumaste has also authored three books in broadband networks called DWDM Network Designs and Engineering Solutions (a networking bestseller), First-Mile Access Networks and Enabling Technologies and Broadband Services: Business Case and Technology for Community Networks. He has served as program chair, co-chair, publicity chair and workshop chair for Ieee conferences and as program committee member for Ieee Icc, Globecom, ofc, Icccn, Gridnets etc. He is also a guest editor for Ieee Communications Magazine, Ieee Network and the founding Editor of the Ieee ComSoc ontc’s newsletter Prism. He is the Secretary of the Ieee Communication Society's Technical Committee on High Speed Networks (tchsn).

Prof. Gumaste has been with IIt Bombay since 2005 where he convenes the Gigabit Networking Laboratory: www.cse.iitb.ac.in/gnl.

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academIc Background

B.Tech, IIt Madras, 1989M.S, Iowa State University, 1991Ph.D, Iowa State University, 1994

research InTeresTs

Parallel algorithms and applicationsString data Combinatorial scientific computing: spatial domain decomposition methods, fast multi-pole method, computational electromagnetics, and materials informaticsBioinformatics and computational biology: computational genomics, systems biology, and high performance/parallel computational biology

Bajaj Group Chair Professor


Prof. Srinivas Aluru 2009

aBouT prof. aluru

prof. aluru is a recipient of the nsf Career Award (1997), IBm Faculty Award (2002), Iowa State University Foundation Award for Mid-career Achievement in Research (2006), Warren B. Boast Undergraduate Teaching Award (2005), two best paper awards (IPdPs 2006 and csB 2005), and two best paper finalist recognitions (sc 2007 and sc 2002).

Prof. Aluru is a well-known authority in two major fields: Parallel Computing and Bio-informatics. He is one of a very small group of people who has used massively parallel com-puters to solve complex problems with innovative algorithms and data structures. He has also developed collaborations with Biologists to the extent that he has several papers in the Biology literature and teaches course with solid Biological content. This work has led to very serious use of parallel com-puting in the Bio-informatics arena.

Prof. Aluru has published two books and more than 90 tech-nical papers in journals and peer-reviewed conferences. He co-chairs an annual workshop in High Performance Compu-tational Biology and has edited a comprehensive handbook, Computational Molecular Biology published in 2006.

Prof. Aluru has been a faculty member at IIt Bombay since 2009.

Chair Professors prior to 2009

44 45


academIc Background

B.E, sgsIts, Indore, 1969M.Tech, IIt Bombay, 1971 Ph.D, IIt Bombay, 1981

research InTeresTs

Data base management systems Software engineering, system performance evaluation Distributed client server information systems

Subrao M. Nilekani Chair Professor


Prof. D. B. Phatak p r i o r t o 2009

aBouT prof. phaTak

prof. phatak's primary research inclinations are in tech-nology application and deployment areas. He created the benchmark-toolset ‘PaRIkshak’ that was used by several Indian organizations for system performance evaluation before the advent of tPc benchmarks. He has been involved in the development of an authoring environment for creating interactive computer-based tutoring systems. He has devel-oped a tutoring environment for a maintenance-training simulator now being used as a product for training engineers and technicians for maintaining large and complex engineer-ing systems.

He was invited to work on the Saraf Committee to plan induction of modern Information Technology in the National Payment Systems. He has coordinated a large pilot project on campus to introduce smart card based payment systems in the country. He is actively involved with the new initiative on Smart Cards by the Ministry of Information Technology. He currently leads the Smart Card research group in kResIt working on future multi-application smart cards. He had chaired a seBI Committee to evolve similar technical stan-dards for internet trading.

He has been with IIt Bombay since 1971. He served as the first Dean of Resource Development for IIt Bombay from 1995 to 1998. He was the founding head of Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology set up in October 1998 at the institute.

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academIc Background

B.Tech, IIt Madras, 1976 M.Tech, IIt Madras, 1978 Ph.D, University of Utah, 1981

research InTeresTs

Real time systems DatabasesDistributed applications

Vijay & Sita Vashee Chair Professor


Prof. Krithi Ramamritham p r i o r t o 2009

aBouT prof. ramamrITham

prof. ramamritham has received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIt Madras, Doctor of Science (hono-ris causa) from the University of Sydney, Australia and IBm Faculty Awards.

Prof. Ramamritham is a Fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (Ieee), the Association for Compu-ting Machinery (acm), the Indian National Academy of Engineering (Inae), and the Indian Academy of Sciences (Ias).

His research explores timeliness and consistency issues in computer systems, in particular databases, real-time systems, and distributed applications. His recent work addresses these issues in the context of Dynamic Data in sensor networks, embedded systems, mobile environments and the web.

For the last few years he has been interested in the use of Information and Communication Technologies for creatingtools aimed at socio-economic development.

Prof. Ramamritham has been a faculty member at IIt Bombay since 1998.

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chaIr professors aT IIT BomBay

The cornerstone of IIt Bombay's Tryst with Excellence are faculty members with an excellent record of teaching and research who have distinguished themselves in their chosen fields. The most preeminent among them are recognised and aided by the institute by appointing them as Chair Professors.

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IITB ChairProfessor