Professor Suman Chakraborty appointed IIT Kharagpur director

Kolkata: Suman Chakraborty, the Institute Chair Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department of IIT Kharagpur, and Sir J C Bose National Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology, has been appointed the director of IIT Kharagpur, the institute said in a statement on Friday night.

Chakraborty, who will take over from the current acting director professor Amit Patra, will be in office for a period of five years with effect from the date of taking charge or till attaining the age of 70 years, whichever is earlier.

Chakraborty was recently awarded the 2026 TWAS Award in Engineering and Computer Sciences by the UNESCO for his seminal work in micro and nanoscale flows, enabling innovations in diagnostic technologies and improving rural livelihoods and healthcare access for the marginalised populations.

Chakraborty was featured in the list of top 100 researchers across all disciplines in Asia in 2023.

A recipient of the National Award for Teachers 2023, a laureate of Infosys Prize-2022 and the winner of the coveted Santi Swaroop Bhatnagar Prize, Chakraborty has been elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the ASME, Alexander von Humboldt, and all the Indian National Academies of Science and Engineering, the institute said.

Chakraborty, who has been appointed as a full-time director by the Centre, joined IIT Kharagpur in 2002 as an assistant professor and has been a senior professor since 2008.

On January 1, IIT BHU (Varanasi) director Amit Patra took over as the acting director of IIT Kharagpur, after the end of term of V K Tewari, who was the institute's director till December 31, 2024.