K. R. Sarma Distinguished Lecture Series
Professor Kalluri Ramalinga Sarma, affectionately known as 'KRS', can be best described as a creator of institutions. He joined the Electrical Engineering Department at IIT Kanpur in 1961 after completing B.Tech (Hons.,1957), M.Tech (1958) from IIT Kharagpur and Ph.D (1961) from Cornell University. Working closely with Prof. Kelkar, the visiting Professors from KIAP program and young colleagues, Prof. Sarma put together a curriculum that became a bench-mark for other institutions in the country. He was the Dean of Research and Development at IIT Kanpur and was also the Head of EE-ACES (76-79). Professor Sarma strove to build the institute in its research activities. His contributions dot the campus in the form of ACES, LTP, CAD Centre and the Television Centre. His latest addition in this list is the Samtel Centre for Display Technology, a unique blend of academic, industrial, and government collaboration. He is now a part of the National Advisory Board of the National Centre for Flexible Electronics where he continues to evaluate ideas and encourage product development.
This Lecture series was instituted by Dr K. Sri Nageswari, wife of Prof. K R Sarma as a recognition of his dedication to IIT Kanpur for 28 long years and which he continues to serve in various advisory capacities.
Past Speaker
Dr. Saurabh Lodha
Dr. Saurabh Lodha spoke on "Engineering the strain and neuromorphic performance of 2D-TMD transistors" is the P. K. Kelkar Chair Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT Bombay, and also serves as Professor-in-charge of the IITB-OSU Frontier Research Center. His research focuses on 2D materials and devices, wide-bandgap power electronics, CMOS process integration, metal-semiconductor interfaces, and molecular-scale devices.He completed his PhD in Electrical Engineering at Purdue University, and prior to academia worked at Intel on advanced CMOS process integration.
Prof. Souvik Mahapatra
Prof. Souvik Mahapatra spoke on "A device (TCAD) to circuit (SPICE) framework for BTI and HCD aging". He is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at IIT Bombay and a Fellow of IEEE, INSA, INAE, and IASc, widely recognized for his pioneering contributions to CMOS device reliability. His research spans micro/nanoelectronic device characterization, BTI/PBTI and hot-carrier degradation, high-k gate dielectrics, advanced CMOS scaling, and 3D NAND flash memory reliability. With a PhD from IIT Bombay and industry experience at Bell Labs, he has authored influential books on BTI, collaborated globally as visiting faculty at institutions like Applied Materials and NTU Singapore, and earned major honors including the IBM Faculty Award, Vikram Sarabhai Award, and multiple international invited lectureships.