C.V. Seshadri Chair
Friends, relatives and well-wishers of Late Prof. C.V. Seshadri set up Prof. C. V. Seshadri Chair under his name in the year 2008. This Chair is open to the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Kanpur. Late Prof. C. V. Seshadri was a renowned Indian chemical engineer who began his academic career at IIT Kanpur as an Assistant Professor in 1965 and later became Head of the Chemical Engineering Department and Dean of Student Affairs. He left IITK in 1974 to set up India's first fodder-yeast plant at Kasturi Paper Food and Chemicals Ltd., Bangalore. In 1976, he became the founding Director of the Shri A. M. M. Murugappa Chettiar Research Center in Chennai, where he developed several rural technologies, including Spirulina algae. For this, he received the Jamnalal Bajaj Award in 1981. Prof. Seshadri held a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University and was a Research Associate at MIT. His friends fondly remember him as someone who could mould ordinary people like a potter into good scientists.
Current Occupant
Prof. Raj Ganesh Santharam Pala
(May 2026 - May 2029)
Prof. Raj Ganesh Santharam Pala from the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Kanpur, holds a joint appointment in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSP). His research interests include electrochemical and reaction engineering, sustainable energy, electrocatalysis, fuel cells, photoelectrochemical systems, nanostructures, interfaces, and functional materials. He received his Bachelor's degree from the Central Electrochemical Research Institute, his M.Sc. from the Indian Institute of Science and the National Centre for Biological Sciences, and his Ph.D. from the University of Utah.
Former Occupant
Prof. Animangsu Ghatak
(Jul. 2022 - Jul. 2025)
Prof. Animangsu Ghatak, Department of Chemical Engineering, research interests are Mechanics of soft materials; Adhesion, friction and fracture at soft interfaces; Fracture of soft gels; Flow through micro-channels; Protein crystallization; Bio-mimetic design of engineering materials. He did his B. Tech from IIT Kharagpur in 1994, M. Tech. from IIT Kanpur in 1998, and a PhD, Lehigh University, PA, 2003. He went on to do his Post Doctoral Research at Cambridge University, UK & Harvard University, USA, 2003-2004. He is a recipient of SERB -STAR, 2020, Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering, 2018.