INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ROORKEE

RAMKUMAR PRIZE FOR OUTSTANDING TEACHING AND RESEARCH

The "Ramkumar Prize for outstanding Teaching and Research" carries a cash prize of Rs. 1,00,000/-, which is awarded to an outstanding faculty member of IIT Roorkee on the basis of his/her performance in teaching and research.

RAMKUMAR PRIZE FOR OUTSTANDING TEACHING AND RESEARCH

RAMKUMAR PRIZE FOR OUTSTANDING TEACHING AND RESEARCH AWARDEES

2023

Prof. Ranjana Pathania

Department of Biosciences & Bioengineering
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Prof. Pathania joined Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee in October, 2007. She has taught various Biotechnology courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Prof. Pathania uses modern concepts of teaching pedagogy to inculcate a sense of academic excellence in her students. She utilizes a hands-on approach for teaching and combines case studies in the field of Bioscience and Bioengineering for enhancing the effectiveness of the subjects. Prof. Pathania leads her students by example in terms of sincerity, adding new and emerging concepts and keeps her teaching material updated. She connects very well with students of heterogeneous backgrounds, shows compassion and helps students in their psychological wellness. This is the reason that she has been extremely popular amongst students. Her devotion to the academic profession makes Prof. Pathania a role model for young and aspiring scholars. Prof. Pathania has made seminal research contributions, notably in the field of understanding the molecular mechanism of antibiotic resistance in bacterial pathogens. Her research group is the only Indian laboratory which has opened the field of small RNAs in pathogenesis and made a mark. She has always been a strong proponent of prioritizing research on mitigation of antimicrobial resistant pathogens, an impending healthcare disaster. Through her research endeavors, she has developed novel antibacterial compounds, adjunct molecules and other diverse strategies to treat antibiotic resistant pathogens. Her work in these fields holds immense value towards the betterment of modern medicine and human health. Her contributions towards both, applied and fundamental aspects of antibiotic resistance have been duly recognized through various awards and accolades. She was awarded the prestigious DBT-Wellcome Trust India Alliance senior fellowship. Recently, she was elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India (FNASc, NASI) as a result of her research work on antibiotic resistance. She has mentored several PhD students, postdocs and researchers who have published in journals of international repute, and completed several international and national research projects. She helps the top funding agencies of the country, like DBT, ICMR and DST, by providing support as a member or chairperson of various project review committees. It is a great pleasure for IIT Roorkee to honor Prof. Ranjana Pathania with the Ramkumar Prize for Outstanding Teaching and Research.

2022

Prof. R. Balasubramanian

Department of Computer Science and Engineering
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Prof. R. Balasubramanian joined Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee in 2004. Prof. Balasubramanian has taught various computer science courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He believes that effective teaching is the backbone of academic excellence. His conception of teaching is to create an active learning environment through more and more participation of students in the class. His goal is to maintain students' interests using a variety of instructional media, a blend of traditional and modern ideas, and a balance of theoretical concepts and their applications. Prof. Balasubramanian always updates his teaching by adding new components and impresses his students with his creativity, sharp intellect, and clarity of thought. Throughout his academic tenure, he has been extremely popular among his students and staff, and a large number of students have derived inspiration and guidance from him. He has received the Outstanding Teacher Award of IIT Roorkee in 2010 and 2020. His total devotion to the teaching and academic profession makes him a role model for young and aspiring scholars. Prof. Balasubramanian has been making excellent research contributions, particularly in Computer Vision, Image Processing, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning. He has supervised 28 Ph.D. students, published extensively in journals and conferences of international repute, and completed 14 sponsored and 5 consultancy projects funded by SERB, ISRO, DST, CSIR, IRDE, DEAL, and Samsung. A very large fraction of his papers have appeared in Q1 journals or top conferences. It is a great pleasure for IIT Roorkee to honor Prof. R. Balasubramanian with the Ramkumar Prize for Outstanding Teaching and Research.

2021

Prof. Rajat Agrawal

Department of Management Studies
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Prof Rajat Agrawal is one of the few faculty members of the Institute, who teaches not only in his parent department, i.e. Management Studies but also in Centre of Disaster Mitigation and Management, Centre of Transportation System, Department of Design and Department of Biosciences and Bio engineering. He is not only popular among IIT Roorkee students but also popular across the country for his number of courses offered through NPTEL and other Edtech platforms. For his research contribution in the field of management, he was awarded ICCR Chair Professorship at Indonesia. He was also a visiting fellow at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. He received ISOL research Award at Chicago for his research contribution, Dainik Bhaskar Excellence award for outstanding teaching and various other medals and recognition for his teaching and research contribution. He is also a fellow of Institution of Engineers. Prof Agrawal has completed different International collaborative research projects sponsored by Danish Innovation Council, Erasmus Mundus etc. He is handling projects sponsored by Ministry of Tribal affairs, IPR Chair of DPIIT, DBT, NHMS etc. He was also part of famous Environment Management Plan for Ganga River Basin. He has published extensively in peer reviewed journals. He has one patent to his credit which is successfully licensed to a manufacturer. He has also authored one book on Management Education and contributed book chapters in 8 books. He is a regular speaker at various national and international platforms. Prof Agrawal is credited with initiating and steering the proposal for a unique Master in Innovation Management program at IIT Roorkee.

2019

Prof. Vipul Rastogi

Department of Physics
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Prof. Vipul Rastogi's passion for teaching has been recognised earlier also when he won the outstanding teacher award of IIT Roorkee and IAPT-DSM award of Indian Association of Physics Teachers. His teaching methodology includes explaining the concepts in the simplest possible manner, making students conversant with the topic using computer simulations and to provide students an environment which is conducive to developing critical and independent thinking. As a researcher, his notable scientific contributions are conceptualization and design of novel largemode-area optical fibers for high capacity DWDM optical communication systems, few-mode erbium doped optical amplifiers for futuristic SDM based optical communication system and designs for enhancement of the efficiency of organic light emitting diodes. His excellence in research is evident from his several patents and research papers in top journals. He has also developed and transferred the technology of two commercial softwares in the area of Fiber Optics. He has held visiting positions at the University of Nice, France and City University of Hong Kong. Prof. Rastogi had several international research collaborations including an Indo-French Network Project, UK-India Education and Research Initiative and DST-RSF IndoRussian Project. Dr. Rastogi has contributed and shown excellent performance in teaching, research and innovation

2016

Prof. Partha Roy

Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering
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Prof. Partha Roy, Ph.D in Endocrine Biochemistry & Reproductive Physiology), is a Professor of Biotechnology at Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. Prof Roy’s contribution and research work in the field of Life Sciences has received exceptional recognition. This is mainly in terms of natural product based drug discovery research for various diseases like cancer, diabetes and osteoporosis and development of cell based assays for drug screening. His research has been supported by several major funding agencies in India as well as by industries. He has also served as a member of the Scientific Panel on “Functional foods, nutraceuticals, dietetic products and other similar products” constituted by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). He is an avid writer and has authored various books in the field of life sciences over and above publishing more than hundred research articles in high impact journals. In recognition of Prof Roy’s outstanding professionalism in shaping the lives of young students, he has been adjudged Outstanding Teacher twice in year 2014 and 2019 at Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. He is a fellow of Society for Reproductive Biology and Comparative Endocrinology, India.

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