ALUMNI NEWSMAKERS

Sunday, May 17, 2009

You will be pleased to know that on May 17, IITK Alumnus Vineet Buch (IITK/BTCS/93) became the first Indian American ever to compete at the 2009 Molokai Challenge surfski race. The 37-year-old venture capitalist, and Founder of Bay Area Companies, Ria (now Like.com) and Karient, completed the Molokai Challenge in Hawaii, a 32-mile race between Molokai and Oahu, in some of the world’s roughest waters teeming with tiger sharks looking for a quick snack. As Vineet puts it, "the Molokai is like a solo climb on Mount Everest. The combination of balance, agility, endurance, intelligent wave reading and mental toughness necessary to finish a race like this is unique to this race." For the India West article on Vineet Buch and the Molokai race, please see: http://www.indiawest.com/readmore.aspx?id=842&Sid=1 You can also see a youtube video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL7z3ivrzK8

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Rakesh K. Jain, Ph.D., of Wellesley, Massachusetts, has recently been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Jain is the director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Edwin L. Steele Laboratory and the Andrew Werk Cook Professor of Radiation Oncology. Jain is among 72 new members and 18 foreign associates from 15 countries to be recognized by the academy for their distinguished and continuing achievement in research. With this new honor, Jain becomes only the ninth individual and the first Harvard Medical School faculty member elected to all three U.S academies at the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering and the NAS. Established in 1863 by a congressional act of incorporation by President Abraham Lincoln, the NAS is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to furthering science and its use for the general welfare. The academy acts as an official advisor to the federal government in matters related to science and technology. Dr. Jain received his bachelor's degree in 1972 from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and his M.S. and Ph.D., in 1974 and 1976 from the University of Delaware all in chemical engineering. Dr. Jain is regarded as a pioneer in the fields of tumor biology, drug delivery, in vivo imaging and bioengineering. His work has fundamentally changed the thinking of scientists and clinicians about how molecularly targeted therapeutics actually work in animal models and cancer patients and how to combine them optimally to improve survival rates in cancer patients. Further details about Dr. Jain's research can be found at www.steele.mgh.harvard.edu.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Prof. Dr. E. G. Rajan is the Founder President of the Pentagram Research Centre (P) Ltd., Hyderabad, India. He is an Electronics Engineer and a Professor of Signal Processing having about 30 years of experience in teaching, research and administration. He has a number of publications to his credit. He is a professional member of ACM and he is an editor of the journal of AMSE, Barcelona, Spain. He received his Ph.D degree in Electrical Engineering, (Signal and Image Processing), from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, U.P., M.E. degree in Applied Electronics, from Madras University, the then famous DMIT in Electronics Engineering from the Madras Institute of Technology, Chromepet, Madras and B.Sc degree in Physics from Madras University. His contribution to the state-of-the-art of Electronic Warfare has been well recognized in the Government and industrial sectors. He was a noted teacher in the department of Electrical Engineering of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He received Distinguished Scientist and Man of the Millennium Award from Who is Who Bibliographical Records, Cambridge, 2000. He authored many books like, Symbolic Computing – Signal and Image Processing, Electronic Order of Battle Records of Military Radars, Computers and Information Technology and Foundations of Information Technology. He is the father of a novel paradigm Symbolic Computing In the Framework of Markov’s Constructive Mathematical Logic. Two of his fifteen Ph.D scholars are involved in the design of digital circuits using organic molecules and some of them are working in the novel area of Genomic Signal Processing. He has brought out more than 25 original concepts. One such concept is Codon Space, which advocates the theory of Life Forms as Subspaces of the Information Space called Codon Space. Another concept is a Mathematical Transform, which goes by his name as Rajan Transform. This transform is ideally used for Pattern Recognition and Analysis purposes. He leads the company in his own professorial style and the company is technically strong and steady. Pentagram Research Centre Private Limited was incorporated in February 1997 in Hyderabad, India. Pentagram Research is dedicated to providing institutions, industries and research laboratories with comprehensive range of open-ended solutions in most of the areas related to Information Technology. The Scientists and Scholars of Pentagram Research are constantly involved in various major activities related to research, development, training and publications. Major areas of research of the company are: Computer Vision, Digital Morphology, Cellular Logic, Image Algebra, Virtual Reality, Pattern Recognition, Remote Sensing & GIS, Neural Networks, Artificial Intelligence, Bio-Informatics, Space Applications, DNA Computing, Symbolic Computing, Molecular Electronics, Subsurface Imaging, Modeling and Simulation, Vedic Science & Philosophy, Robotics and Automation, VLSI & Embedded Systems, Defense Applications. Speed and precision are the two major factors of immediate concern to any one interested in developing algorithms for mission critical applications. Traditional theories and paradigms have indeed been used for meeting such requirements. However, the desired speed and precision were not achieved till now due to the fact that the traditional algorithms are essentially numerical in nature. Efforts were made to develop non-numeric algorithms for various applications which would ensure speed and precision. The essence of the results due to such effects is the formulation of a theory called "Cellular Logic Array Processing". This paradigm has been evolved using the fundamental notions of von Neumann's Cellular Spaces and Markov's Normal Algorithms. Research continues in various tenets of this paradigm. A number of fast algorithms have been developed to carry out desired operations on Signals and Images. Many products have been developed using such algorithms, among which the following three are of very high scientific and commercial values: LIPS (Logical Image Processing System), LPGS (Logical Pattern Generating System), MEDIMAGE (Medical Imaging System), and LCCS (Logical Currency Checking System). Subsequently, the following companies have been incorporated: Pentagram Research Publications, Pentagram Research Foundation, Pentagram Mining Technologies Private Limited, Dr. E G Rajan Research Foundation, Hyagreeva Research Foundation, Pentagram Energy Solutions Private Limited, Centre for Advanced Studies in Vedic Sciences, LEJ Brouwer School of Intuitionistic Logic. www.pentagramresearch.com

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Dr. Shikha Singh (MSc/Phd/Mth/99/06) has been selected as the awardee of the ISCA Young Scientist Award Programme for the year 2008-09 in the section of "Mathematical Sciences including Statistics" for paper entitled "Modelling the effects of ecological factors on the spread of Malaria". This award carries a certificate and a cash award of Rs. Twenty five thousand, to be given, on January 05, 2009, during the 96th session of the Indian Science Congress to be held at North Eastern Hill University, Shillong from January 3 to 7, 2009 Presently she is Head of Department of Mathematics P.P.N. College, C.S.J.M. University, Kanpur.

Thursday, December 04, 2008
	Professor Sanjay Mittal (BT/AE/88), Department of Aerospace Engineering, as the Dean of Academic Affairs, for a period of three years with effect from the date of assuming the charge.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Ashutosh Sharma (BT/ChE/82 & DAA/07), Institute Chair Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur has been awarded the TWAS Prize in Engineering Sciences for the year 2008 by TWAS—The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (http://www.twas.org/). The Prize, consisting of US $15000 and a personalized plaque, recognizes his "fundamental and significant contributions to meso-mechanics, instabilities and self-organization in soft thin films; meso-patterning; wetting; adhesion; and interfacial interactions." It is the first time TWAS Prize in Engineering Sciences has come to India. TWAS-The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World has some 90 member countries primarily in South America (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, etc....), Africa, much of Asia and Pacific regions including for example, Egypt, China, Koreas, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, etc.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

government on Monday appointed Finance Secretary Duvvuri Subbarao as the new governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He will succeed Dr Y V Reddy, whose term ends on September 5. "The government has decided to appoint D Subbarao as the next governor of RBI," finance minister P Chidambaram told reporters. Mr Subbarao would be appointed for a three-year period. He may, however, be considered for reappointment for another two years, as the RBI Act provides for appointment of a governor for a period of up to five years. Duvvuri Subbarao also takes over as the 22nd RBI governor at a critical time when there are a lot of headwinds ahead. The macro-economic situation is challenging with the slowing down of growth and inflation worries. He will have to get into action straightaway with the next policy review in October. Mr Subbarao, in contrast, is reckoned to be less hesitant on some key structural changes proposed for the central bank, making monetary policy its sole focus, divesting other functions such as public debt management and supervision of the banking system. Mr Subbarao studied physics at IIT and was one of the first IIT products to join the civil services. Subsequent to joining the IAS, he did his MS in economics from the Ohio State University (1978) and was a Humphrey Fellow at MIT during 1982-83. He also has a PhD in economics.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Rajendra K. Bordia (BT/ME/79), University of Washington Professor of Materials science and engineering, has been awarded a Humboldt Research Award for Senior Scientists by Germany’s Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. This international honor, and one of the most prestigious awards given by Germany, recognizes Bordia’s career accomplishments in Materials Science and Engineering and will fund Bordia’s research. on composite particles and multilayered systems of semi-conducting oxides. Bordia also received the Marsha Landolt Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award from the University of Washington. He did his graduate studies at the Cornell University and spent more than five years as a research scientist at DuPont before arriving at the UW in 1991.

Monday, August 18, 2008
	Anand Kumar, (MT/ME/71) retired on 31 July 2007 as Scientist G from CSIR, Centre for Mathematical Modeling and Computer Simulation (C-MMACS) Bangalore. He joined NAL as Scientist B in 1971.