Raj and Neera Singh Chair
Dr. Rajendra Singh and Dr. Neera Singh instituted the Raj and Neera Singh Chair under their names. Dr. Rajendra Singh (BT/EE/1975), is an entrepreneur who founded the Lightbridge Communications Corporation (LCC) International, a world leader in providing wireless voice and data turn-key services to the telecommunications industry along with his wife, Dr. Neera Singh (BT/CHE/1981). Dr. Singh has been instrumental in the academic and professional development of the wireless telecommunications industry.
Current Occupant
Prof. Raju Kumar Gupta
(09 May 2026 - 08 May 2029)
Prof. Raju Kumar Gupta, from the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Kanpur. His research focuses on nanomaterial synthesis and the exploitation of organic molecules, polymers, and surface-functionalized nanoparticles and their assembly for electronics and energy applications through layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly, the design and engineering of nanostructures for energy applications, and self-assembly-based nanosphere and block copolymer lithography. He received his B.Tech. from IIT Roorkee in 2005, followed by a Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the National University of Singapore in 2010. Prof. Kumar is a recipient of the DST INSPIRE Faculty Award (2013).
Former Occupant
Prof. Naveen Tiwari
(Jul. 2022 - Jul. 2025)
Prof. Naveen Tiwari, Department of Chemical Engineering, specializes in the areas of Transport Phenomena, Instabilities in micro-scale free surface flows, Flow through porous media, Numerical modeling and simulation. Prof. Tiwari earned his doctorate from the University of Massachusetts, USA in 2008 . He was awarded the Young Scientist Research Award in 2014 by BRNS, DAE (Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences, Department of Atomic Energy), Young Faculty Research Award in 2017 and 2020, and the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2019 by IIT Kanpur.
Prof. Sri Sivakumar
(May 2019 - Apr. 2022)
Prof. Sri Sivakumar from the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Kanpur, conducts research on lanthanide-based nanodevices, multifunctional nanomaterials for drug delivery and bioimaging, novel nanocatalysts, nanomaterials for solar hydrogen generation, and photonic materials. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and completed his postdoctoral research at the Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (CNST), The University of Melbourne, Australia. He is a recipient of the Prof. CNR Award for outstanding research contributions.