IIT Madras launches Subra Suresh distinguished lecture series featuring lectures by nobel laureates

NEW DELHI : Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has launched the Subra Suresh distinguished lecture series that will feature lectures by nobel laureates and globally-renowned speakers from different fields. They will also deliver a science talk which will be open to all members of the public.

Professor Didier Queloz, awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in physics for ‘spectacular discovery that kick-started the rise of exoplanet research,’ will deliver the inaugural address of the lecture series in Chennai on October 20, 2022. The event would be open to everyone.

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The topic of Professor Queloz’s address to the public is ‘Exoplanets and the Search for Life in the Universe.’ Interested people can register through the link - iitm.zohobackstage.in/SubraSureshDistinguishedLectureSeries

The lecture series was launched in honour of IIT Madras alumni - Professor Subra Suresh, a Distinguished Alumnus awardee (1997) and currently president and a distinguished university professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is a former director of the US National Science Foundation, a former dean of engineering and Vannevar Bush Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In addition, he is also a former president of Carnegie Mellon University. He is the first IIT alumnus and India-born academic to be appointed to these leadership positions.

Technical, public lectures

Senapathy ‘Kris’ Gopalakrishnan, chairman of Axilor Ventures, Bengaluru, and co-founder of Infosys contributed to the lecture series.

The lecture series will be a three-day annual event. Day one will include the technical lecture followed by a public lecture on day two. The final day would focus on interactions between the distinguished speaker and IIT Madras faculty, students and laboratory visits.

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“As part of this three-day annual event, these distinguished speakers will also deliver a separate technical address at IIT Madras and hold discussions with professors and students from various research institutions in Chennai. A one-day workshop will also be organized in honour of the visiting academic as a forum for faculty members and students to get together,” said an official statement from IIT Madras.

Highlighting the importance of this initiative, Professor Mahesh Panchagnula, dean (Alumni and Corporate Relations), IIT Madras, said, “We are delighted to launch the Subra Suresh lecture series supported by the generosity of Shri Kris Gopalakrishnan. This series will bring the best speakers from all over the world to India, with the motivation to bring a broad perspective of science to researchers and laypeople.”