Air Vice Marshal Harjinder Singh VSM Class MBE Chair of Excellence
The establishment of this Faculty Chair is expected to promote excellence and leadership in teaching, research and development, collaboration, and academic work in the field of developing new and emerging technologies, aerospace technologies in the areas of Aircraft Structural Integrity, Aircraft Health Monitoring, and other allied subjects in the fields of Aeronautics and Aviation. The Chair has been instituted by the generous donation of Air Headquarters, New Delhi, India
The IAF Chair Professor will co-ordinate the following activities:
- Facilitate development of training programs & training modules for capacity building of IAF personnel.
- Organization of an annual conference jointly by IAF and IITK provide platform in the areas of Aircraft Structural Integrity, Aircraft Health Monitoring and other allied subjects in the fields of Aeronautics and Aviation to provide platforms for new ideas, innovations, technologies , etc.
- Provide travel grant to Ph.D scholars of Aerospace Engineering Department of IITK working in the areas as mentioned above thereby giving opportunities to present high quality research papers for their conference and helping in their quest for excellence.
- The establishment of this Faculty Chair is expected to promote excellence and leadership in teaching, research and development at IITK in the areas of Aircraft Structural Integrity, Aircraft Health Monitoring and other allied subjects in the fields of Aeronautics and Aviation.
- Assist IAF in other matters such as participation and contribution of knowledge to seminars and conferences on the subject.
Current Occupant
Prof. Abhishek
(Sep. 2025-Sep. 2028)
Prof. Abhishek from the Department of Aerospace Engineering, IIT Kanpur. His research focuses on the aeromechanics and design of rotary-wing and VTOL aerial vehicles, wind turbines, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS).
He earned his B.Tech in Aerospace Engineering from IIT Kharagpur and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park, USA. He has authored over 80 publications and holds 12 patents. He is the youngest recipient of the INAE Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation National Fellowship (2018-23) and received the Athena Award for outstanding performance in Advanced Mathematics at the University of Maryland in 2010.
Former Occupant
Prof. Ashoke De
April 2022-April 2025
Dr. Ashoke De is a professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, IITK and has a joint appointment in the Department of Sustainable Energy Engineering at the same institute. His areas of interest include fluid mechanics, combustion, heat transfer, supersonic and hypersonic flows, aero-acoustics, multiphase modeling, Energy Harvesting, and Fluid-structure interaction. He is an AvHumboldt Fellow, Fellow of West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology, and currently a member of American Physical Society (APS), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics AIAA (senior), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Power (FMFP), Indian Society for Heat and Mass Transfer (ISHMT), and Combustion Institute. He earned his doctorate from Louisiana State University, the USA in 2009.