Alumnus Awards

Sri Prakash Damodaran’s talent lies in combining technology and public policy particularly with respect to the newly emerging fields of IT where inputs in both areas are required.

Sri Damodaran obtained his B.Tech. degree in Aerospace Engineering in 1974 from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He obtained his postgraduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta in 1976 for which he received the Institute’s Honor Roll for academic excellence and the Dunlop scholarship.

His first job was at Binny Limited in Chennai. Sri Damodaran later joined the IAS and served in various positions in the Tripura cadre from 1979 to 1988. He then served the Government of India as Commissioner, Central Vigilance Commission, during which period he set up commission’s first computerized information system. He then studied at Harvard University in the U.S. where he obtained his Master’s in Public Administration and received the Edward S. Mason and U.N. fellowships.

From 1996 Sri Damodaran has been with the Government of Tamil Nadu as Secretary to the Government and was responsible for the creation of the new Department of Information Technology. He formulated and implemented the State’s first IT Policy and its Optical Fiber cables policy. He has also served as a member of the expert group on Citizen-IT interface of the National Task Force on IT of the Government of India. His work in IT department has placed Tamilnadu and India in the forefront.

IIT-Madras is happy to bestow the Distinguished Alumnus Award on Shri. Prakash Damodaran.

Sri S. Srinivasan is a rare combination of technologist, entrepreneur and academic whose work has enriched contemporary society.

Having obtained his B.Tech. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1964, Sri Srinivasan subsequently received his M.S. degree in Computer Science from IIT Madras in 1979 and is currently Chairman and Managing Director of SRA Systems Limited in Chennai.

Sri Srinivasan has had a wide-ranging career, both in industry and academia. He worked with IBM in India, U.S. and the U.K. He implemented the Treasury Accounting System and the Crime Information System for the Tamil Nadu Government and was also involved with the installation of the first mainframe IBM computer at IIT Madras.

Sri Srinivasan worked as System Manager of the computing facility at IIT Madras. He was also part of developing the Institute’s Internal Information Systems. He served on the faculty of IIT Madras in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering teaching Database Systems, MIS and Operating Systems.

Establishing the SRA Systems in 1986, Sri Srinivasan played a significant part in the growth of the company into a 500 member, Rs. 100 crore Software Export Unit. He was a also key player in developing and marketing the software product ODYSSEY. He has actively worked to expand the market in frontier technology areas of embedded software, mobile computing and machine-to-machine communication and is responsible for bringing Carnegie Mellon University software courses into India.

IIT-Madras is happy to bestow the Distinguished Alumnus Award on Shri. S. Srinivasan.

Dr. Rajiv Ramaswami’s dedication to technology innovation and commercialisation sets him apart as a leader in the emerging new global economy.

An expert in Telecommunications Engineering and Architecture, Dr. Ramaswami, received his B.Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1986 from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He subsequently obtained his Master’s degree in 1988 and his Ph.D degree in 1990 from the University of California at Berkeley, in the USA.

From January 1989 to January 1997 Dr. Ramaswami was with the IBM T. J. Watson Research Centre, where he led a group that developed one of the earliest commercially available WDM systems. From 1997 through 1999, Dr. Ramaswami was Director of the Optical Networking Group at Tellabs, where he led the development and marketing of the Tellabs metro optical networking products. The group was seeded by Tellabs acquiring the IBM Research optical networking team.

Dr. Ramaswami is currently Vice President for System Architecture at Xros, a division of Nortel Networks. He leads a group doing product planning and system engineering for Xros’s products and also leads a cross-portfolio of Nortel group developing next generation all-optical networks. Dr.Ramaswami joined Xros in its early days in 1999 as a silicon valley startup, and was instrumental in setting the product direction and architecture for the company. Xros was acquired by Nortel Networks for $ 3.25 Billion in June 2000, setting a record for valuation of an early-stage company with just 70 employees.

Dr.Ramaswami has published extensively on optical networking and has about 25 patents. He has worked on all aspects of optical networks, from early research to product development to network deployment, as an engineer, leader, and entrepreneur. He presently serves on the Advisory Boards of several startup companies and ventures capital funds. Dr.Ramaswami is a Fellow of the IEEE and a recipient of the IEEE W.R.Bennett and W.R.G. Baker Prize Paper Awards and an Outstanding Innovation Award from IBM. He is also the co-author of a book “Optical Networks – A Practical Perspective”.

IIT-Madras is happy to bestow the Distinguished Alumnus Award on Dr.Rajiv Ramaswami.

Dr. Sankaran Sundaresan is currently Professor of Chemical Engineering at Princeton University, New Jersey, USA. He received his B.Tech. degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 1976. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Houston in 1978 and 1980 respectively.

Dr. Sundaresan’s contributions constitute an impressive body of work which spans the spectrum of chemical reaction engineering. He has made fundamental contributions in the areas of Hydrodynamics of Multiphase Reactors, Oxidation Catalysis and Reactor Dynamics. His work is remarkable for its unique combination of formal elegance and practical utility.

Dr. Sundaresan has published over 100 papers in reputed journals and has four patents to his credit. He has won several awards and honors including the Richard H. Wilhelm Award in Chemical Reaction Engineering, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 1999.

Dr. Sundaresan has been an outstanding teacher and is known for an unfailing dedication to illuminating complex subjects for students. Dr. Sundaresan has served as a consultant to several corporations and research institutions in the USA.

In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer on him this award.

Sri Srinivasan blends that rare combination of technical expertise with administrative ability.

Sri M.S. Srinivasan graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras with a B.Tech. in Civil Engineering in 1970. He subsequently received his Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University, U.S. in 1987. He underwent training at the National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie from June 1971 to May 1973 and has also been a member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) for the last thirty years.

In a distinguished public administrative career spanning 27 years, Sri Srinivasan has travelled from his posting as a Sub-collector of Tuticorin Division of Tirunelveli District in Tamil Nadu. During this period he has served as the General Manager of the Pallavan Transport Corporation, as Managing Director of Kattabomman Transport Corporation, as Project Co-ordinator of the Tamil Nadu Integrated Nutrition Project, as Collector of the Dharmapuri and Ramanathapuram districts, as the Project Director for the Tamil Nadu Health Project, as the Marketing Director in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for the Government of India, as the Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited, as the Managing Director of the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, as the Chairman and Managing Director of the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Limited and as the Secretary of the Government of Tamil Nadu Industries Department. Since June 2000 he has been with the Government of India in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion. During this wide-ranging career, Sri Srinivasan has influenced the course of uncountable numbers of lives with his steadfast dedication and tireless energy. Among these numerous contributions, Sri Srinivasan led a health care program that focused pregnant and lactating mothers, and children in the age group of 6 to 36 months in 9000 villages, covering over 40% of the population of Tamil Nadu. While Industries Secretary of the Government of Tamil Nadu he played a significant role in the emergence of Tamil Nadu as a software city through his initiative during the development of the TIDEL Park at Chennai.

IIT-Madras is happy to bestow the Distinguished Alumnus Award on Shri. M.S. Srinivasan.

Sri Subramonian Shankar belongs to that small class of techno-entrepreneurs who have made a significant impact on contemporary society. Born in Chennai (Madras) Sri Shankar obtained his B.Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras in 1971. After working for three years in the R&D labs of Tata Electric Company, Sri Shankar proceeded to Canada where he obtained his Master’s degree in Electric Engineering from the University of New Brunswick in 1976.

Between 1976 and 1985, Sri Shankar worked alternately for organizations in the US and India until he founded American Megatrends Inc. in 1985. There can be very few individuals who use Personal Computers who are not aware of this company. In 1989 this organization was cited in Fast Tech 50 (fastest one year growth). In 1990, Sri Shankar was honoured as Georgia’s Emerging Entrepreneur of the year and as Business and Technology Alliance High Tech Entrepreneur of the year.

In 1991 Sri Shankar was honoured by the Who’s Who among Leading American Executives. In the same year, American Megatrends was ranked as the world’s number one BIOS manufacturer. In 1992 American Magatrends founded a subsidiary in Hong Kong and in 1993 in the UK along with Vitel Technologies – a contract manufacturing facility. In 1994 Sri Shankar founded AMI Germany and AMI India which is located in Chennai. AMI Taiwan followed in 1995 and AMI Korea in 1998.

Sri Shankar is married and has two children. Currently he is the President and CEO of American Magatrends Inc. and Vitel Technologies. The Indian Institute of Technology Madras is proud to honour Sri Subramonian Shankar with the Distinguished Alumnus award in recognition of his many achievements in technology and business.

Dr. G S Bhuvaneshwar has made outstanding contributions in the development of implantable and disposable Medical Devices. He is currently the acting Head of the Biomedical Technology Wing of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) at Trivandrum. He has played an important role in the growth of Bio-medical Engineering and Medical Industry in India.

Dr. Bhuvaneshwar received his degree of Bachelor of Technology in Electronics from IIT Madras in the year 1972. He also obtained his M.S. (Biomedical Engineering) degree, by Research from IIT Madras in 1976. In 1994 he took his Ph.D. from SCTIMST for his studies in the area of Biomedical Technology.

He has been with SCTIMST for the past 24 years, working on various research projects. Now, as the acting Head of the Wing, he has the overall responsibility for all Research and Development activities, Technology Transfer and IPR activities of the Wing. He is also the Technical Manager, Quality System Implementation for the Biomedical Technology Wing – aimed at international accreditation of the test laboratories by early 2001.

Dr. Bhuvaneshwar has made remarkable contributions in medical device development; covering areas of design, development, fabrication, evaluation, pilot production and technology transfer. His single outstanding contribution was the development of “Tilting disc heart valve prosthesis”. This indigenous development, comparable with imported valve, is in clinical use for nearly a decade, and over 2500 valves have been implanted so far. For this achievement, Dr. Bhuvaneshwar has received the SCTIMST Institute Award in 1991, NRDC Republic Day 1994 Award for Meritorious Invention in 1994, and the FIE Foundation 1994 Award. He has also made major contributions in the development of other medical devices – Hydrocephalus Shunt system, Low cost humidifier, Hollow Fibre Membrane Oxygenator, and a Woven Arterial prosthesis.

He has published over 25 Research Papers and has 4 Indian patents, 2 US patents and 1 European patent.

Dr. Gangan Prathap is the Scientist-in-charge of the CSIR Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation, Bangalore. He has an exceptional academic record including the first rank in JEE 1969, and the President of India prize for the first rank in the B.Tech. degree programme of IIT Madras. In 1990, he was awarded the S S Bhatnagar Prize in Science and Technology. He has also won many other awards and honours in his career.

He has over 90 publications in international journals to his credit with many among them receiving numerous citations. In particular, he has contributed significantly to the areas of non-linear structural mechanics, and finite element modeling. He has also authored books and numerous technical reports.

He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, and the Indian National Science Academy. He has been a Member in many professional societies and expert committees. He is also on the Editorial Boards of reputed international journals.

In recognition of the efforts, achievements and excellence in research of Dr. Gangan Pratap, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to present him with this award.

Dr. B. Jayant Baliga graduated with a B.Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras in 1969 as recipient of the Philips India Medal and the Special Merit Medal (as valedictorian). He completed his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in the field from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York in 1971 and 1974, respectively. He is an internationally renowned expert in the field of power semiconductor devices. Currently he is a Distinguished University Professor at North Carolina (NC) State University, where he is also the Director of the Power Semiconductor Research Center. As an academic, Dr. Baliga has authored/ edited 19 books and has more than 550 publications as well as 120 U.S. patents to his credit.

Prior to his time with NC State University, Dr. Baliga spent fifteen years at the General Electric (GE) Research and Development Center, leading their power device effort. At GE, he was bestowed the highest scientific rank of Coolidge Fellow. During his time at GE, Dr. Baliga invented, developed and commercialized the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) which is used extensively across multiple industries including consumer, transportation and medical, enabling reduction of gasoline and electrical energy use. Dr. Baliga’s contribution not only lowers costs but also minimizes global carbon dioxide emissions. For this work, Dr. Baliga was conferred with Russia’s top technology award, the Global Energy Prize (considered energy equivalent of the Nobel Prize) in 2015. Scientific American magazine has called him one of “eight heroes of the semiconductor revolution”.

In 2011, he received the “National Medal of Technology and Innovation”, the highest form of recognition given to an engineer by the United States Government. Among the honours bestowed upon him by the NC State University are the 1998 O. Max Gardner Award from the Board of Governors, an award given to the one person within the 16 constituent universities who has made 'the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human race'; as well as the 2011 Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal of Excellence, the highest honour at the University from the Board of Trustees. Dr. Baliga is also a Member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Life Fellow of the IEEE, from whom he has received many awards including the highest recognition, the Medal of Honour in 2014.

In recognition of his unparalleled contribution to the field of power semiconductor devices and energy efficiency, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer this award upon Dr. B. Jayant Baliga.