Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur is committed to excellence in teaching and in research. The quality of its graduates has been acknowledged throughout the world. Some of its Alumni have become leaders in their respective fields. Persons like Mr. Narayana Murthy have become icons of successful alumni of IIT Kanpur.

The faculty of IIT Kanpur have contributed a good deal to the growth of the Insititute and have participated in the nation building in the last five decades. They have served as role models for the younger generation. Their immense contribution has yielded rich dividends in the form of quality graduates from IIT Kanpur, who stand shoulder to shoulder with the best in the world.

In order to acknowledge the contribution of the faculty, IIT kanpur, in consultation with its students, alumni, faculty and the Board of Governors, instituted Distinguished Teacher Awards for the first time in the year 2002. The awards that year went to Professors Amitabha Ghosh, K. R. Sarma and G. D Agarwal. The choice of these teachers for the distinction conferred upon them set high standards to follow. In the subsequent five years, the awardees were Professors G K Lal, H C Verma, (Ms) Lilavati Krishnan (2003), Professor Asok Kumar Mallik (2004); Professors Harish Chandra Karnick, (Late) Jawahar Lal Batra (2005), Professors R N Biswas, Amit Ray (2006) and Professors M R Madhav (CE), A K Chaturvedi (EE), H S Mani (Phy), M K Harbola (Phy) 2007, Professor S K Gupta (Maths) and C V R Murty (CE) 2008, Prof. P Shunmugaraj (Maths) 2009, Professors R. Balasubramaniam, (MSE), V. N. Kulkarni & S. D. Joglekar (Phy), Dr. S S K Iyer (EE) and Dr. Amit Mitra (Maths) 2010, Prof. Arvind K Sinha (HSS) and Prof Swagato Kumar Ray (Maths) 2011.

For the current year, based on a large number of nominations received, the Institute committee recommended that the Distinguished Teacher Award for the year 2013 be conferred upon Professors G Neelkantan (HSS), Prof. Raghubir Saran and Aloke Dutta (EE).

IIT Kanpur also honoured eleven of its faculty colleagues, who have completed 25 years of distinguished service to the Institute through the presentation of a shawl and a citation to each by the Director. These faculties are Professors Ethirajan Rathakrishnan , Vadapalli Chandrasekhar, Rabindra Nath Mukherjee , Parima Kumar Bharadwaj, Sadasivam Manogaran, Sarvesh Chandra, Sekhar Kumar Chakrabarti, Pradip Sircar, Pravir Kumar Dutt, Krishnamurthy Muralidhar and Nalinaksh Shardchandra Vyas.