Six IITs throughout the nation received new directors on Thursday, according to a UNION Ministry of Education announcement. IIT-Kanpur, Dhanbad, Jodhpur, Guwahati, Goa, and IIT-BHU will appoint Manindra Agrawal, Sukumar Mishra, Avinash Agarwal, Dr. Devendra Jalihal, Dhirendra S. Katti, and Amit Patra as directors, in that order.
Since 1996, Agrawal has held a professorship in the department of computer science and engineering at the same university as the new director of IIT-Kanpur. He teaches algebra, cryptography, computational number theory, complexity theory, and algorithms. Among his many accomplishments are the Padma Shri he received in 2013 and the Humboldt fellowship he had from 1995 to 1996 at the University of Ulm in Germany.
Mishra was a professor in the electrical engineering department at IIT Delhi before being named director of IIT-Dhanbad. He is now the dean of the IIT Delhi-Abu Dhabi campus’s research and external engagement division. From March 1, 2020, to March 31, 2023, he served as assistant dean for research and development at IIT Delhi.
Avinash Agarwal was a professor in the mechanical engineering department of IIT-Kanpur before being appointed to IIT-Jodhpur, one of the newer IITs.
The newly appointed director of IIT-Guwahati, Jalihal, was a professor in the electrical engineering department of IIT-Madras. His research interests are in wireless communication and signal processing, according to his profile. He started working at IIT-Madras in 2006.
Katti, who formerly held the position of director at IIT-Goa, was a professor in the biological sciences and bioengineering department at IIT-Kanpur. The University of Mumbai awarded him a Ph.D., and Drexel University in the USA provided him with post-doctoral training. Prior to joining the BSBE department in April 2004, he worked as an assistant professor (tenure track) at University of Virginia and as an assistant professor (research track) at Drexel University.
Patra was named director of IIT BHU after formerly holding the position of deputy director at IIT Kharagpur. The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur awarded him a B.Tech., an M.Tech., and a Ph.D. in 1984, 1986, and 1990, respectively. In 1987, he began working as a faculty member in the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur’s Department of Electrical Engineering.
