Infosys co-founder Senapathy Gopalakrishnan has donated $1.8 million to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to establish a research partnership between CMU and the Centre for Brain Research (CBR) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore.
The partnership will strategically leverage the research strengths of both institutions while enhancing the connection between CMU and India. A world-renowned research university, CMU has become a leading centre for brain research over the past two decades.
CMU’s focus in neuroscience has been in computational and cognitive neuroscience, areas that are increasingly critical for linking biological and genetic mechanisms to understanding and discovering new therapeutic interventions of brain disorders.
CBR was launched through a foundational gift from the Pratiksha Trust, a charitable trust established by Gopalakrishnan, and is focused on understanding and treating neuro-degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. This partnership will provide opportunities for applying new technologies from fields ranging from imaging to machine learning to address critical questions about neuro-degeneration and normal ageing.
Carnegie Mellon’s Pittsburgh campus is home to more than 1,000 students from India, comprising nearly 10 per cent of the entire student population on campus. India is also home to the second-largest concentration of CMU alumni. The partnership will explore avenues to further strengthen the intellectual ties between CMU and India, while addressing some of the most challenging research problems in brain research.
Gopalakrishnan, who co-founded Infosys in 1981, had served as the chief executive officer and managing director of Infosys from 2007 to 2011.