Alumnus Awards

Dr. D. V. Satya Gupta graduated from IIT Madras in 1974 with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering. He obtained Master of Science and Doctor of Science degrees in Chemical Engineering from Washington University, U.S., in 1976 and 1979, respectively. Dr. Gupta is one of the world's preeminent experts on well stimulation technology including fracturing, which, along with horizontal drilling, has made the US almost self-sufficient in energy in recent years. He is a prolific inventor whose inventions and co-inventions have resulted in more than 150 U.S. and international patents in application of chemical technology for oil and gas production enhancement. He is also the author of more than 70 technical papers and co-author of Chapters on 'fracturing fluids' in several books. Since 2015, he is a Technology Fellow at Baker Hughes, a GE company.

Prior to his service at Baker Hughes and affiliated companies, Dr. Gupta had diverse appointments and responsibilities at reputed firms and institutes such as Gulf South Research Institute and Pennzoil Technology Center. His technological developments in the field of chemical engineering include: encapsulated breakers, polymer-specific enzyme breakers, long-term release production assurance products, premium performance aqueous fluid systems, non-aqueous fluid systems, and ultra-light weight proppants. Currently, along with an elite group of two other technology experts, he consults with executive management on technology matters, and mentors technical talent at one of the largest oil field service companies in the world. For his contributions to the industry and company, he was awarded the Baker Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012, one of only 12 who have been honored with this accolade during the 108-year history of this esteemed company.

Industrial contributions apart, his academic endeavours are exemplified in being an active member of the American Chemical Society, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, National Association of Corrosion Engineers and Society of Petroleum Engineers. He was the 2014-15 Society of Petroleum Engineers' Distinguished Lecturer on the topic of “How to Frac with little or no water”, a topic on which he has given seminars around the world. He was awarded the 2017 Society of Petroleum Engineers' International Completions Optimization and Technology Award for his work in the area of fracturing. He has chaired several symposia on Green Corrosion Inhibitors and Fracturing Fluids, and co-Chaired the 2016 American Society of Mechanical Engineers' Hydraulic Fracturing Conference. He is on the Editorial Board of SPE technical journals, and the Hydraulic Fracture Quarterly Technical Journal. At the behest of the U.S. Department of Energy, he has been on the Industry Advisory Committee for the University of Oklahoma Fracturing Fluid Characterization Facility. He has presented at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Hydraulic Fracturing Study Group as an invited speaker on “Unconventional Fracturing Fluids”.

For his singular contributions to the development of well-simulation and fracturing technology, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer this award upon Dr. D. V. Satya Gupta.

Dr. Chandy graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in “Light Current” Electrical Engineering (Electronics) from IIT Madras in 1965, and later, with a Master’s degree from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1966. In 1969, he obtained his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Electrical Engineering at the Operations Research Center. After working for Honeywell and IBM, Dr. Chandy joined the Computer Science Department of the University of Texas at Austin and served from 1970-1987, including stints as Chair in 1978-79 and 1983-85. Since 1987, he has been at the California Institute of Technology, first as Sherman Fairchild Fellow for two years, and then as Simon Ramo Chair Professor in Computer Science till 2014. He is now an Emeritus Professor at Caltech.

Dr. Chandy's research focuses on distributed command and control systems, and on applications of such systems to crisis management and homeland security. The core problem that Dr. Chandy studies deals with systems that respond to events. Sense-and-respond systems react to significant changes in the state of the environment. Key issues are the definition of a “significant change”, the detection of the change, and the execution of an appropriate response to the change. Dr. Chandy has carried out pioneering work in this realm of research.

He received the A. A. Michelson Award in 1985 and the IEEE Koji Kobayashi Award in 1995 for his contributions to computer performance modeling. He was awarded the John Sherman Fairchild Scholarship in 1987. He received the ACM SIGOPS Hall of Fame Award and the ACM Edsger W. Dijkstra prize, with Leslie Lamport, for their paper on distributed snapshots. He received the IEEE Harry H Goode Award in 2017 with Jayadev Misra for contributions to distributed computing. He became an IEEE Fellow in 1990, and was inducted into the United States National Academy of Engineering in 1995. He has received teaching Awards at the University of Texas and at Caltech, and has graduated more than 30 Ph.D. students. Dr. Chandy has written four books and published widely-cited papers on queuing theory and the performance analysis of computing and communication systems; formal reasoning about concurrent computing systems; programming languages for parallel computing; complex event processing for detecting threats such as earthquakes; and mathematical models of electrical power systems.

For his exemplary contributions to research in distributed computing, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer this award upon Dr. Kanianthra Mani Chandy.

Dr. Mas Subramanian is a graduate of University of Madras with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chemistry earned in 1975 and 1977, respectively. In 1982, he completed his doctoral research from IIT Madras in Materials Chemistry, and joined Texas A&M University as a Post-Doctoral Fellow. He worked at DuPont Company from 1984 to 2006 as a Research Scientist. Since 2006, he is the Milton Harris Chair Professor of Materials Science at Oregon State University. Since 2006, he is also the Signature Faculty Fellow of Oregon Nano science and Micro technologies Institute. He has served as Director of Materials Institute, Oregon State University from 2006 to 2013.

Dr. Subramanian is internationally recognized for breakthrough discoveries in the field of superconductors, dielectrics, magnetism, catalysis, thermoelectrics and inorganic pigments. His research focuses on designing new inorganic solid state functional materials for emerging applications in electronics, energy conversion and the environment. His notable discoveries include: zeolites as precursors to electronic ceramics, new Bi and Tl-containing superconductors, catalysts for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, colossal dielectrics, colossal magnetoresistance oxides, and Skutterudite Thermoelectrics. His work on fluoro aromatic synthesis is one of his most notable achievements. Dr. Mas Subramanian's scientific discoveries have been featured in leading international newspapers and magazines such as The New York Times, National Geographic, National Public Radio, BBC News, CNN, Sydney Morning Herald, The Hindu and Times of India. In 2009, Dr. Subramanian and his team discovered a new class of highly-durable, non-toxic intense blue color pigments-based manganese oxides. This discovery of “MAS Blue” received world-wide attention since it has been over 200 years since the last durable blue pigment -- CoAl2O4 (circa. 1802) -- was discovered.

Dr. Subramanian has authored 350 publications in esteemed journals such as Science, Nature, Journal of American Chemical Society, Physical Review Letters, et al., and holds 57 US patents. He has delivered more than 200 invited talks all over the world. He has been honored with many accolades, including the 2016 Oregon Academy of Science Outstanding Scientist Award, F.A. Gilfillan Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Science in 2013, Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) International Medal in 2012, the 2012 U.S. National Science Foundation Creativity Award, and the DuPont Charles Pedersen Medal in 2004. He has also served as a visiting professor at Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux, University of Bordeaux, France, and as the Normandy CNRS Chair of Excellence at CRISMAT Laboratory, University of Caen, France. He is the Editor of two leading international journals -- 'Solid State Sciences' and 'Progress in Solid State Chemistry'. He has also served on the Editorial Board of journals such as Chemistry of Materials, Materials Research Bulletin, and Journal of Solid State Chemistry.

For his discovery of “Mas Blue” and other outstanding contributions to the field of materials chemistry, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer this award upon Dr. Mas Subramanian.

Dr. Naga Bhushan graduated from IIT Madras in 1989 with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. Later, he obtained a Master’s and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. With more than two decades of contributions in the telecommunications sector, he is responsible for advancement of communication theory and for innovative implementation leading to the commercial realization of Broadband Wireless Technologies such as 3G (EV-DO) and 4G (UMB, LTE, LTE-A, LTE-U). His role as the Vice President, Technology at Qualcomm Inc. places him at the helm of technologies that are the bedrock of the current smartphone revolution.

Dr. Naga Bhushan has made significant and innovative technical contributions to the design and development of EV-DO, the first high-rate, wide-area wireless packet data system to be widely commercialized. His main areas of contribution include waveform design, channel coding and modulation schemes, antenna diversity schemes, link adaptation techniques, handoff algorithms, power control, QoS-aware scheduling algorithm and the functional architecture of the forward link demodulator. He has led the design and standardization of the OFDM-based broadcast/multicast service for EV-DO, and of a OFDMA-based wide-band wireless packet data system (UMB) in the 3GPP2 standards forum. He has actively contributed to R&D efforts involving Interference Management/Cancellation, Heterogeneous Networks, Multi-hop/relays, Ultra-dense networks for LTE-Advanced, LTE for unlicensed spectrum (LAA/eLAA) and direct (peer-to-peer) communication, and New Radio for 5G wireless systems (including mm-Wave bands). He has developed key insights and identified the main design elements that formed the basis of the systems mentioned above.

Dr. Naga Bhushan has published his research and findings in 26 international journals and conferences, and has more than 300 issued US patents spanning 3G, 4G and 5G wireless systems, with over 150 active patent applications. Notable awards and recognitions conferred upon him include a 2 Qualstar (Qualcomm Internal) Award for EV-DO Rev. A (Systems Lead) and cdma2000 Phase 2 Evolution (Design Evaluation and Standards Lead). His active role in the industry has not kept him away from academia, as he has worked in collaboration with Professors from UC Berkeley, Cornell, IISc and University of Cairo, among others. As part of his service to the community, he has served as an Adjunct Faculty for Amrita University, Coimbatore for 5 years, offering a Master’s level course titled 'MIMO Communication Systems' and conducting online lectures for the same.

For his groundbreaking innovations in telecommunication technology, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer this award upon Dr. Naga Bhushan.

Dr. Noshir S. Contractor graduated from IIT Madras in 1983 with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. He received his Master's degree in Communication from the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California where he also carried out his doctoral research in Communication, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1987. Having served on the faculty of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign till 2007, he is currently the Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University, USA.

Dr. Contractor is well known for the Multi-Theoretical Multi-Level (MTML) Framework he developed along with Peter Monge. This is described in detail in his book, “Theories of Communication Networks”, which received the 2003 Book of the Year award from the Organizational Communication Division of the National Communication Association. He was also one of the principal investigators of the Virtual Worlds Observatory project, and has co-edited a book on “Predicting Real World Behaviors from Virtual World Data” in 2014.

His contributions to the field of behavioral sciences and communication are numerous and outstanding, and he has been described by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, one of the world-renowned inventors of the World Wide Web (WWW), as “a true intellectual leader and curator of the web community”. Dr. Contractor has presented and published more than 250 research papers in international conferences and esteemed journals in the area of social communication networks, and has contributed chapters to prominent books. The long list of honors and accolades received by him includes: International Communication Association Fellow in 2015; National Communication Association Distinguished Scholar Award in 2014; and Outstanding Member Award, Organizational Communication Division, International Communication Association, in 2000.

Dr. Contractor has been part of software development projects such as Recommender system for scaling up health innovations in Bihar, India and the assembly of interdisciplinary teams. Recently, he has been funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop “Novel Approaches to Measuring Demand-side Community Perceptions and Barriers to Family Planning via Social Network Analysis” in Kenya, and by the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) to design, monitor and mitigate against challenges that will be faced by international crews on missions to Mars. He serves on the Board of Trustees for the Web Science Trust and has served on many Advisory Boards, including the European Union FP7 Network of Excellence in Internet Science–EINS, Canadian Health Services Research Foundation and the US National Academies of Science (NAS) Decadal Survey of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Applications to National Security. He has held external university appointments at Stanford University's School of Engineering, Columbia University's Center for Organizational Innovation and Fudan University's School of Management in Shanghai.

For his revolutionary contributions to computational social science, social networks and human communication systems, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer this award upon Dr. Noshir S. Contractor.

Dr. Seeram Ramakrishna graduated with a Master’s degree from IIT Madras in 1988, after having obtained a Bachelor of Engineering Degree from Andhra University. Subsequently, he pursued a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, UK, and the General Management Program from Harvard University, USA. He is currently a Professor and Director of the Center for Nanofibers and Nanotechnology in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS).

Dr. Ramakrishna's leadership experience includes NUS' University Vice-President (Research Strategy); Dean of Faculty of Engineering; Director of NUS Enterprise; Director of NUS Industry Liaison Office; Founding Director of NUS Bioengineering; Founding Director of NUS Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Initiative, NUSNNI; Founding Chairman of Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore, SERIS; and Chair of Circular Economy Taskforce.

Dr. Ramakrishna is an elected International Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering, UK; Academy of Engineering, Singapore; National Academy of Engineering, India; ASEAN Academy of Engineering & Technology; ISTE, India; Institution of Engineers Singapore (IES); American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); ASM International; American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME); American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering (AIMBE); ImechE and IoM3, UK; and International Union of Biomaterials Science & Engineering (FBSE).

Dr. Ramakrishna is a highly-cited researcher in Materials Science. Thomson Reuters recognized him among the “World's Most Influential Scientific Minds”, and a European study placed him among only five researchers from Singapore with H-index above 100. He has co-authored more than 1,000 SCI-listed international journal papers and five books, which have received in excess of 74,000 citations and H-Index of 127. He is among the world's foremost scientists working on nanomaterials by electrospinning. His work has resulted in patented technologies which are translated into real world products. He advises technology start-ups and investors. He is an Editorial Board member of ten international journals, and an Editor of Elsevier Journal of Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering.

Dr. Ramakrishna is a Nominated Member of the World Economic Forum Committee on Future of Production-Sustainability. He chairs the Future of Manufacturing TC at the Institution of Engineers, Singapore. He advises Singapore's National Environmental Agency on Circular Economy and Industry 4.0. He authored the book “The Changing Face of Innovation”. He is an op-ed columnist and regular speaker on higher education, research and innovation at forums facilitated by United Nations Academic Impact, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, OECD, and UNESCO. Over the past 15 years, he has been serving the global engineering community in various capacities including: Founding Chair of Global Engineering Deans; Vice-President of IFEES; and Board Member of Asia Society for Innovation & Policy.

Dr. Ramakrishna has received several awards and other forms of recognition for his pioneering research contributions, and among these are: 'Fibernamics Award' in Portugal, International Federation of Engineering Educator Societies (IFEES) President's Award as a 'Global Visionary'; and ASEAN Outstanding Engineer Award.

For his visionary work in the fields of nano materials technology and engineering education, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer this award on Dr. Seeram Ramakrishna.

Dr. Sridhar R. Tayur graduated from IIT Madras with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in the year 1986. He went on to pursue his Master’s and Ph.D. in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University. Currently, he is Ford Distinguished Research Professor of Operations Management, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA. Prior to this, he has held positions at IBM, AT&T and Cornell University, and has carried out many consulting projects with a wide spectrum of industries.

Dr. Tayur has been a serial entrepreneur and an active promoter of monetizing Operations Research (OR), and was the first to coin the term “academic capitalist”. He is the Founder and CEO of OrganJet, a start-up that facilitates multiple listings and provides affordable access to on-demand private jets for patients. Established in 2011, OrganJet has revolutionized the medical industry, that too in such a remarkable manner that its operations serve as a case study at Harvard Business School. He is also the Founder of SmartOps Corporation, which created the market for Enterprise Inventory Optimization (EIO) software, and was acquired by SAP AG in 2013. Dr. Tayur has published extensively in Health Care Operations, Supply Chain Management and Inventory Models, and in Manufacturing, Logistics and Services. He has developed several novel OR methodologies and techniques. He has received funding from National Science Foundation, as well as from Tech giants such as Microsoft, IBM and Intel Corporation.

Dr. Tayur has been named one of the four “Masters of Supply-Chain Efficiency” by Fortune Magazine, and a “Most Popular Professor” by Business Week. In 2012, Sridhar received the highest academic recognition in his profession when he was elected as a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS). His paper on OrganJet ("Overcoming geographical disparities in access to deceased donor kidneys in the United States") won the Pierskella Best Paper Award in 2015. In 2016, he was invited to the White House by President Obama to highlight his innovations in organ transplantation. Additionally, in 2017, he was honored as a Distinguished Fellow by the MSOM Society and elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

For his pioneering work in monetizing Operations Research, and seamless integration of academia with entrepreneurship, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer this award on Dr. Sridhar R. Tayur.

Dr. Sudhir Kumar Mishra graduated with a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Madras in 1995, after having obtained his Bachelor’s from University of Jabalpur. Subsequently, he obtained his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from NIT Warangal. Since August 2014, he has served as Distinguished Scientist & Director General (BrahMos), DRDO, Ministry of Defence, and CEO & MD, BrahMos Aerospace, leading an R&D team to design, develop, test, produce and maintain the world's fastest supersonic cruise missile BrahMos, encompassing its complete life cycle.

With more than 33 years of experience in industry, Dr. Mishra has made a monumental contribution in the areas of missile technology, defence technology management, business development, marketing and defence diplomacy. He started his career under the tutelage and guidance of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India, and has since contributed immensely to the design, development, flight tests and production of several missiles.

As CEO & MD of BrahMos Aerospace, the renowned Joint Venture between Government of India (GoI) and Russia, Dr. Mishra is leading a highly-motivated and technically-competent team of more than 1,500 engineers, scientists and technicians located at New Delhi, Hyderabad, Nagpur and Thiruvananthapuram. He has successfully contributed to the 'Make in India' campaign of the GoI by creating a business of Rs.27,500 crores on an investment of Rs.1,300 crores and generating significant profits.

Dr. Mishra is the 2010 recipient of the 'Scientist of the Year' Award of DRDO, Govt. of India, and for his leadership and business acumen on display at BrahMos Aerospace, he was recognized as 'Super CEO of the Year' by Times of India Group in 2015. He was awarded the 'Gaurav Samman' Award by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 2016. In 2017, he was selected as Academician by the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics. He has numerous publications in national and international journals and conferences. As a representative for DRDO in several foreign countries, he has demonstrated exemplary defence diplomatic skills which resulted in the culmination of many international R&D projects within the framework of foreign policy and defence cooperation agreements.

For his groundbreaking innovations in Defence Technology, Management and Diplomacy, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer this award on Dr. Sudhir Kumar Mishra.

Shri Lazar T. Chitilappilly graduated from IIT Madras with a Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering in 1983. In 1985, he obtained his Master’s from IISc Bangalore. As a scientist-engineer at VSSC / ISRO from 1985, he has been contributing to the field of propulsion for more than three decades with his landmark work on various aspects of High-Speed Air Breathing Propulsion (HSABP) covering design, modeling/analysis, manufacturing, system integration, testing and flying. As Project Director for Air Breathing Propulsion since 2006, he has played an instrumental role in the execution of the project, one that has made the nation proud.

In the early 2000's, when ISRO embarked on the ambitious program of propulsion, Shri Lazar was appointed as Associate Project Director. He went on to become the leader of the Air Breathing Propulsion Project team, a team that successfully flight-tested the Scramjet engine on August 28, 2016 at a hypersonic speed of Mach 6, achieving supersonic ignition and combustion in flight. This was a very challenging program in light of being a late starter compared to the U.S. and to Russia, and given the sensitive nature of the dual-use technology. In order to successfully navigate the associated hurdles, Shri Lazar guided his team to build a strong research network with the IIT's and IISc, thereby giving the program the required forward momentum.

Shri Lazar has also contributed significantly to the development of the scramjet, a perfect example of a complex system which has taken over 50 years of earnest research efforts worldwide, involving vast investment of financial and human resources, to create a successful technology. With this success, India joined an elite club of only three countries (U.S., Russia and Australia) that have acquired an advanced and closely-guarded technology with enormous potential for low-cost access to space and hypersonic global travel. Shri Lazar has proved his leader's mettle in guiding and motivating his team to this remarkable achievement over long years of commitment and hard work in the face of scarce resources. The "Scramjet Engine Flight Experiment" team won the ISRO Team Excellence Award in 2016.

Since 2007, he has also been a part of the ISRO-IIT Space Technology Cell Joint Policy Committee at IIT Madras, and has played a key role in the annual selection of projects to be taken up collaboratively, and in ongoing review of the projects. He is a recipient of the ISRO Performance Excellence Award and IISc Aerospace Engineering Platinum Jubilee Award for Distinguished Alumnus.

For his outstanding contribution to scramjet propulsion technology, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer this award upon Shri Lazar T. Chitilappilly.