Sanjay & Rachna Pradhan Chair

Mr. Sanjay Pradhan and Mrs. Rachna Pradhan have jointly instituted the Sanjay & Rachna Pradhan Chair. This Chair is open to any faculty from all the departments of sciences & engineering at IIt Kanpur. Mrs. Rachna Pradhan (BT/EE/1985) is the Co-founder and CTO of Max Secure Software. With over 20 years of experience, Mrs. Pradhan has successfully managed projects providing varied solutions in the field of R&D, design, manufacturing &Q&A/Resting in diverse technology spheres.
Mr. Sanjay Pradhan (BT/CHE/1986) is the Founder & CEO of Max Secure Software. With a career spanning over two decades, Mr. Pradhan began his career in the US with companies working in the areas of Real Time Dynamic Simulation, AI, designing & deploying Control systems using Batch Processes. At Max Secure Software, Mr. Pradhan oversees business strategy, marketing & product development. He earned his MS from Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania in AI & Optimization.


Current Occupant

Prof. Pratik Sen

(Sep. 2025 - Sep. 2028)

Prof. Pratik Sen from the Department of Chemistry, IIT Kanpur, has research interests in ultrafast laser spectroscopy, single-molecule spectroscopy, and fluorescence spectroscopy. He has received several honors, including the INSA Young Scientist Medal (2012), CRSI Bronze Medal (2021), and Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2021). He is also a former INYAS member (2016-2020) and recipient of Young Faculty Fellowships from IIT Kanpur and the Ministry of Electronics & IT. He earned his Ph.D. from IACS, Kolkata, in 2006.




Former Occupant

Prof. Kumar Vaibhav Srivastava

(Apr. 2022 - Apr. 2025)

Prof. Kumar Vaibhav Srivastava from the Department of Electrical Engineering IIT Kanpur, has research interests in metamaterials, microwave antennas, MIMO antennas, microwave absorbers, microwave cloaking, and the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique. He has received several distinctions, including the IEI Young Engineer Award (2014-15) and IIT Kanpur's Excellence in Teaching Award (2020). He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 2008.