Photographs

At IIT Madras, 1965

Visiting VIPs

The visit of Prof. Dr. P. Hilbig and Mr. H. Westphal is recorded in the Annual Report of IIT Madras 1965-66, Convocation Brochure of IIT Madras 1966, Campastimes (15 February 1966) and the Annual Number of IIT Madras 1965-66. The year of the visit in the Annual Number is given as 1966, while the other sources confirm that the visit was in 1965. The book to Mr. Westphal’s left hand side appears to be the Souvenir Volume to commemorate the visit of His Excellency Dr. Heinrich Luebke (President of the Federal Republic of Germany) to IIT Madras on 3 December 1962 to lay the foundation stone The book is available at the Heritage Centre. 

According to the article ‘Tu Berlin And IIT’ by DJN published in Campastimes, the two gentlemen visited all the departments and met with the Director in order to get an idea about the Institute and the ways in which Technical University, Berlin could help IIT Madras under the Second Indo-German Agreement. They came to the conclusion that although the Technical University, Berlin would not be able to send senior professors to IIT Madras on a long-term basis, they would be able to send professors for short periods of time to conduct seminars and group discussions and to give lectures.

Seen in the image from the left: Prof. Dr. P. Hilbig (Vice-Rector, Technical University, Berlin), Prof. B. Sengupto (Director of IIT Madras) and Mr. C. V. Sethunathan (Registrar of IIT Madras). Seated opposite to them is Mr. H. Westphal (Director, Academic Foreign Relations Office, Technical University, Berlin).