Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has launched V Balakrishnan Institute Chair to focus on research and teaching in the areas of natural sciences, mathematics and theoretical foundation of engineering.

The Chair was named in honour of V Balakrishnan, a former faculty of IIT Madras, and a distinguished Indian theoretical physicist whose expertise spans several fields and areas, including particle physics, many-body theory, and the mechanical behaviour of solids, dynamical systems, stochastic processes, and quantum dynamics. He is an accomplished researcher who has made important contributions to the theory of anelasticity, continuous-time random walks, and recurrences in dynamical systems, says a release from the institute.

The Chair was endowed by Satish Ramakrishna, an IIT Madras alumnus who is currently the Managing Director and Chief Risk Officer of Two Sigma Investments, a New York-based hedge venture capital firm. He belonged to the 1987 batch of the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras.

Announcing the first occupant of ‘V Balakrishnan Institute Chair’, V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, Balakrishnan is one of the greatest teachers and researchers who had served in IIT Madras. I congratulate Sarit Kumar Das for being the first occupant of this Chair.

Prof Balakrishnan, Professor Emeritus, said,“I am extremely optimistic about the future of IIT Madras. There has been a tremendous change in the Institute in the last 40 years. The rankings have improved, thanks to the efforts of the various stakeholders of the Institute,” he said.