Prof Kushal Sen and Dr Mira Kushal endow 5 student and 1 employee award at IITD
Prof Kushal Sen (BTech/77/Textile, PhD/81/Textile) and Dr Mira Kushal (PhD/83/Chemistry) have endowed 5 awards for students at IIT Delhi to recognise research potential, research achievements, leadership potential and 1 award to encourage and appreciate employees for their contributions to the Institute.
4 of the 5 student awards aim to promote research among undergraduate and MSc students at an early stage, encourage their research efforts and motivate them to pursue a possible career in research. The fifth student award will seek to promote leadership traits among students and sensitize them to the importance of social responsibility and concern for the community’s well-being. The Karmath Vyaktitva award for employees encourages and appreciates those who put in their might to help the institute achieve its vision and mentor students beyond their call of duty.
A ceremony to sign the guidelines for these awards was held on August 5th. Speaking on the occasion Prof Shantanu Roy, Dean (Academics) said “I am delighted that Prof Sen has instituted these awards to encourage research by our Undergraduate students. Some of the brightest students in the country study with us and IITD would like these students to take up research careers and create new knowledge for the benefit of all humanity“.
On their motivation for instituting these awards, Prof Sen and Dr Kushal added “IIT Delhi has given us everything; the education, the professionalism and on top the humility. Interacting with such bright minds has been the hallmark of our journey. We would like to see more and more IIT Delhi undergraduates and graduates take up research as their career and bring glory to the institute and themselves”.
Prof. Kushal Sen obtained his B. Tech. Degree in Textile Chemistry in 1977 and Ph. D. Degree in 1981- both from IIT Delhi. He joined the Department of Textile Technology, IIT Delhi as a faculty in 1981 and served as a professor till 2021.
Prof Sen specialises in textile chemical processing, texturing, structure-property analysis, and geotechnical textiles and has made significant contributions to micro-encapsulation and electrically conductive textiles. He also has a keen interest in Educational Technology and has made several films on textile chemical processing for handloom workers and produced video courses for undergraduate and postgraduate textile courses. He initiated the educational transmission of video programmes from IIT Delhi in 2001, which resulted in a full-fledged 24-hour educational channel- Eklavya. He was also the IITD- coordinator of NPTEL and looked after the MOOC’s under Swayam.
At IIT Delhi Prof Sen has held numerous responsibilities and has served as Dean of Alumni Affairs and International Programmes, Dean of Faculty, Head of the Department of Textile Technology, Head of Educational Technology Services Center and member of the Board of Governors. For over 2 decades his name has been synonymous with the Annual Convocation of IIT Delhi.
Dr Mira Kushal received her PhD in Chemistry from IIT Delhi in 1983 and worked in Lady Hardinge Medical College and later joined Deshbandhu College, Delhi University in 1988. At Deshbandhu College, Dr Kushal was instrumental in setting up the department of Biochemistry from where she superannuated.
