Instituted through the generous donations by IITK alumni community, this Chair honors Prof. T.R. Viswanathan who was one of the founding faculty members of IIT Kanpur who joined in the 60's when IIT Kanpur was in its evolutionary state from greenfield. Prof. Viswanathan was a Professor of Electrical Engineering, Head, Computer Centre, and Dean of R&D at IIT Kanpur. He taught courses in Electrical and Computer Engineering and supervised the thesis work of many graduate students in the area of Analog Integrated Circuit Design.

Dr. Viswanathan spent 15 years in research and development, product design, manufacturing, and management in the industry. He retired as a Director of Research and Development from Texas Instruments and thereafter was a Partner at Artiman Ventures. Dr. Viswanathan holds a B.Sc in Physics from the University of Madras in 1956. He won the prestigious Jagirdar of Arni gold medal of the University for being the best Physics student of the year in 1956. Currently Dr. Viswanathan is a Research Professor Emeritus in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and held the Silicon Laboratories Endowed Chair in Electrical Engineering for thirteen years before retirement.

This Chair honors faculty who have distinguished themselves in teaching undergraduate students and also to encourage them to innovate in pedagogy. The Chair will enables the institute to reward and recognize the distinguished and outstanding faculty who have created an immense impact on the career of their students through years of dedicated teaching and mentoring.