Chennai: IIT Madras celebrates Alumni Reunion Day

Chennai: Indian Institute of Technology Madras and the IIT Madras Alumni Association organised the annual Alumni Reunion on campus on Friday.

An alumnus of 1967 batch (B Tech., Mechanical Engineering), Prof Marti G Subrahmanyam donated US$ 1,00,000 to set up 'Marti Mannariah Gurunath Institute Chair' in Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras. Prof Raghunathan Rengaswamy, also an alumnus of IIT Madras (1990, B.Tech. (Chemical Engineering)) and currently a faculty in Department of Chemical Engineering, will be the first occupant of the Chair.

Prof Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras, said, "Prof Marti G Subrahmanyam's family already supports the 'Srimathi Marti Annapurna Gurunath Award for Excellence in Teaching' award in the Institute and now, he is supporting the Institute again through this Chair, being set up in his father's name. We thank him and his family for this generous gesture."

In addition, the B.Tech. batch of 1994 has pledged over US$ 1 million to IIT Madras. This amount will be contributed over a period of 2 to 3 years and will be used for merit-cum-means scholarships, improving emotional wellness of students and individual engineering departments.

"Today, we graduate around 2,000 students every year including 800 undergraduate students, a figure that has grown several-fold in the last 25 years. The institute is celebrating its Diamond Jubilee during 2019. Our alumni are spread all over the world with some leading the biggest brands/companies in the world. A lot of the Alumni have attributed a significant portion of their success to the Institute. 'Alumni Giving' has been an important part in what has enabled IIT Madras to achieve its vision. We look forward to working with the alumni to take the Institute in a path that will be relevant to the country and the alumni." Says Prof Mahesh Panchagnula.