Prof. Emeritus O. P. Malik (1962 - M.E. - Electrical Engineering)
Prof. O. P. Malik has done pioneering work in the development of controllers for application in electric power systems and wind power generation over the past 50 years. The adaptive controllers developed by his group are now employed on large generating units. His other interests include digital protection, control of renewable power generation and micro-grids, and AI applications in power system control. Professor Malik has published over 800 papers including over 410 papers in international Journals and is the coauthor of three books: (1) Electric Distribution Systems, (2) Power System Stability, (3) Power Grids with Renewable Energy. Over 100, including 54 Ph.D., students have graduated under his supervision. He obtained his Master’s Degree from Roorkee University in 1962, followed by a Ph.D. from London University and a DIC from the Imperial College, London in 1965. He had been involved in teaching and as well in research in Canada from 1966 to 1997 and continues to be deeply involved in research as Professor Emeritus at the University of Calgary, Canada. Professor Malik is a Life Fellow of IEEE, he was Director, IEEE Region 7 and President, IEEE Canada during 2010-11 and President, Engineering Institute of Canada, 2014-2016.

Dr. Dinesh Kumar Likhi (1981 - B.E. - Metallurgical Engineering)
Dr. Dinesh Kumar Likhi has an illustrious career of nearly four decades culminating in the highest position of Chairman and Managing Director of a Defense Public Sector Undertaking, Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited: MIDHANI, from 2015 till 2020 and CEO & Director of Utkarsha Aluminium Dhatu Nigam Limited from 2019 till 2020. He has also contributed to the growth and turnaround strategy of Steel Authority of India Limited. He is a nominated Director on the Boards of Bhilai JP Cement Limited, Jaiprakash Power Limited and Supreme Engineering. In addition, he is a strategic advisor to special steel companies viz. Jindal Stainless Steel and Sunflag iron and Steel. Dr. Likhi is a Governing Council Member of CSIR – Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology and a Fellow & Convenor, Sectional Committee of Mining, Metallurgy and Materials of Indian National Academy of Engineers (INAE). He has been awarded various awards at national/international levels like Business Leader of the Year Award, Corporate Leadership in Sustainable Performance, Tata Gold Medal for significant contributions to Indian metallurgical industry and National Metallurgist Award by the Government of India. He has contributed to the development and supply of strategic materials in the areas of Defense, Space and Nuclear Energy. He has published more than 30 articles and 1 book in the areas of technology and management. Dr. Likhi is currently working as a Leadership & Transformation Coach for mid-size to large Indian/Global Companies.

Dr. Shailendra Kumar Joshi (1981 - B.E. - Electronics and Communication Engineering)
One of the longest serving (for a decade) water resources secretaries in the country, Dr. SK Joshi as Secretary and later as Chief Secretary of Telangana took various initiatives in the water resources sector. He was involved in the planning and implementation of several large infrastructure projects in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana such as Polavaram and Kaleshwaram. Kaleshwaram project is the world’s largest project of its kind using underground pumping stations of mammoth capacities and built indigenously by BHEL. It is providing irrigation and drinking water to 20 out of 31 districts of Telangana. The total irrigation potential of the project is 45 lakh acres per cropping season and 56 TMC water for domestic and industrial use. Completion of the project in a record time of three years, despite inter-state water disputes and judicial interventions, was hailed as a major achievement of the department spearheaded by Dr. Joshi. As India’s key negotiator and focal point for several International Environmental Conventions and Protocols, Dr. Joshi has widely travelled across the globe. He was the Vice Chair of the Joint Implementation Mechanism at Climate Change Secretariat, Bonn, Germany in the year 2007-2008. He is a recipient of CHAI – Honoured Fellow Award 2021 for his outstanding contributions to water resource management. As one of the leading experts on environment and water resources in India, Dr. Joshi is a Fellow of Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) International, London. He has written three books and numerous articles on a wide range of topics.

Dr. Dinesh Srivastava (1983 - B.E. - Metallurgical Engineering)
Dr. Dinesh Srivastava, Distinguished Scientist is the Chief Executive, Nuclear Fuel Complex, Department of Atomic Energy. He has been associated with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and has played a major role in India’s dynamic Nuclear Power Program. His pioneering research work in materials science has culminated in the development of alloys and products with superior properties for nuclear applications. He has contributed significantly in the development and manufacturing of several novel material processing methods for a range of strategic structural materials. These components find applications in many strategic applications of the Department of Atomic Energy. Most importantly, the development and production of the SuperNi Alloy Clad Tube with superior life, novel manufacturing process for improved life of Zr-2.5 Nb alloy pressure tube and successful manufacturing of Reactor Pressure Vessel forging. As Head of the Nuclear Fuel Complex, he has contributed significantly to the first stage of the Indian Nuclear Power Program by achieving the highest production of nuclear fuel and other strategic structural materials. He has authored more than 150 peer reviewed research papers published in various national and international journals. Dr. Srivastava has been conferred with various awards and recognitions including the National Metallurgist Award, the highly coveted Homi Bhabha Science & Technology Award, Vasvik Award for Materials Science & Engineering and many more. He is an elected Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering.

Dr. SSV Ramakumar (1984 - M.Sc. - Chemistry & 1988 - Ph.D. - Chemistry)
Dr. SSV Ramakumar Director, R&D and Board member of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., has more than three decades of uninterrupted experience in downstream hydrocarbons sector, notably in the areas of lubricant technology; refinery process research and catalyst development. He is instrumental in the development of India’s home-grown, OEM-approved marine lubricant technology, which catapulted Indian Oil’s SERVO lubes into the select league of five MNCs. He spearheaded the complete indigenization of Indian Oil’s flagship INDMAX technology. Dr. Ramakumar is steering the IndianOil Hydrogen Research program and is on various committees working on drawing the strategies for inclusion of hydrogen in the energy mix. Dr. Ramakumar has over 150 research publications in national/international journals and several granted patents. Dr. Ramakumar also steers the IndianOil start-up initiatives and has successfully incubated more than 30 start-up ideas so far. Dr. Ramakumar has been conferred the Fellowship of Indian National Academy of Engineering (FNAE) and has received many awards, including NPMP, FIPI, NRDC, AIIMA Innovation, Bangalore Nano, and WPC Excellence Award for product and process technologies he has developed.

Prof. Rajeev Ahuja (1986 - M.Sc. - Physics & 1991 - Ph.D. - Physics)
Dr. Rajeev Ahuja was a Professor of Computational Materials Science at Uppsala University, Sweden and is presently the Director of the Indian Institute of Technology Ropar. Before joining IIT Ropar in April 2021, he served the Uppsala University in Sweden for more than 29 years. His primary research focus is on batteries, hydrogen storage and production, sensors, and high-pressure physics. He has more than 995 scientific publications in high ranking international journals to his credit with H-Index 89, i-10 index 604, and more than 35,500 citations. He has more than 100 research publications in journals, such as; Science, Nature, Nature Materials, PRL and PNAS. Prof. Ahuja is an elected Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry, APS-Fellow of American Physical Society, and Advisory Board member of the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, and Materials Advances of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He has been awarded Beller Lectureship by APS, the Wallmark prize from Royal Swedish Academy (KVA), the Eder Lilly & Sven Thureus prize, the Benzelius prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, to list a few. Prof. Ahuja has supervised more than 30 PhDs and 35 postdoctoral candidates. He is a reviewer for several international funding agencies including NSF and DOE USA, NRC Canada, European Science Foundation (ESF) France etc.

Mr. Saurabh Agrawal (1992 - B.E. - Chemical Engineering)
Mr. Saurabh Agrawal is the Executive Director and Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata group of companies. Mr. Agrawal joined Tata Sons in June 2017 from the Aditya Birla Group, where he was the Head of Strategy. In a career spanning over 25 years, Mr. Agrawal has been the Head of Investment Banking in India for Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and also Head of Corporate Finance business in India and South Asia for Standard Chartered Bank. He chairs the Board of Tata Capital, Tata Sky, Tata AIA Life Insurance, Tata AIG General Insurance and Big Basket. He is the Executive Director of Tata Sons Limited & on the Board of Tata Steel, Tata Power & Voltas. Mr. Agrawal has a wide-ranging experience in strategy and capital markets, where he had a ringside view of the evolution of the Indian economy since the mid-90s. He has helped various large Indian and Global corporates on both capital markets as well as mergers and acquisitions. In his past roles, he has worked with several business groups, both Indian and Global. In his role as Group CFO, in addition to the businesses that he chairs, he is focused on driving financial performance and strategy of the group including capital allocation, investment management decisions and portfolio optimization.

Mr. Sumit Dhawan (1996 - B.E. - Computer Science & Engineering)
Mr. Sumit Dhawan is the President of VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW), a $62 billion company. VMware is a leading provider of multi-cloud services for all apps, enabling digital innovation with enterprise control. As a trusted foundation to accelerate innovation, VMware software gives businesses the flexibility and choice they need to build the future. As President, Mr. Dhawan is responsible for the global business of the company, driving VMware’s revenue and leading global teams for Sales, Corporate Alliances, Services, Support, Marketing, and Corporate Communications. Together with the VMware leadership team, Mr. Dhawan is driving the company’s path to becoming the market leader in multi-cloud computing. With more than 25 years of experience in the tech industry, Sumit is a seasoned executive with a proven track record of building and running market-leading businesses. He is a strong advocate for delivering an exceptional experience to customers and partners, and for supporting diverse teams, inclusive cultures and equitable environments that encourage the best in everyone. Mr. Dhawan has also served as the Chief Customer Experience Officer responsible for all of VMware’s services and subscription revenue and was the General Manager of VMware’s End-User Computing business, establishing the company’s leadership in mobile and unified endpoint management and desktop virtualization.

Mr. Pradeep Kumar Bhatnagar (1970 - B.E. - Electrical Engineering)
Mr. Bhatnagar joined Reliance Infocomm as President in 2001. He has initiated industry and academia collaboration in the field of 5G. As an outcome of his initiative, the Jio-IIT Roorkee 5G Innovation Centre was established at IIT Roorkee. It is funded by Jio with an initial budget of Rs.1.57 crores. The Centre is equipped with all the 5G technology components. The Jio-IITR Innovation Centre will take up 5G R&D projects. The Centre will also be used for the training of students in the 5G domain. The Centre will also be linked to Jio Labs for Research and Investigations in a collaborative environment. The agreement allows new R&D projects and broader initiatives by expansion of the Centre going forward. The Centre is becoming operational in 2021. As Jio Labs gains experience by a massive roll out of 5G, new areas of industry-academia cooperation will be identified to support 5G use cases in various domains, along with IITR. One of the key areas of 5G is the industrial transformation that it brings about through robotics, IoT and low latency connectivity. The Jio-IITR 5G Centre will also take up these critical areas for the evolution of 5G use cases which are specific to the Indian context. The multi-domain capabilities of IITR will also be leveraged in this endeavor.

Mr. Pitambar Shivnani (1986 - B.E. - Electrical Engineering)
Mr. Pitamber Shivnani is one of the leading names in Electrical Industry in India. Mr. Shivnani joined ABB in 1987 and climbed his way up to become the President of ABB India Limited’s USD $500 million Power Grids Division in 2016. During one of his visits to IIT Roorkee he developed and conceived the idea of converting IIT Roorkee campus as a laboratory scale working model of Smart City. In the first phase of the roll out plan, the power distribution network of the campus is being automated. He initiated a CSR Project for IIT Roorkee for setting up a Distribution SCADA and Microgrid costing approximately Rs. 4.0 crores. Mr. Shivnani and Director IIT Roorkee laid the foundation of the Microgrid in 2019. The system being implemented has a plug and play feature so that any new innovative technology being developed by the students and faculty of IIT Roorkee can be tested in an actual working environment.

Dr. Kiran Panesar (1989 – B.E. - Computer Science Engineering)
Dr. Kiran Panesar works at Google in the recommendations team. Dr. Panesar has started several impactful projects to help the students of IIT Roorkee, and connect alumni to the institute. One of them is the IIT Roorkee Alumni Mentorship Program of which he is the Founding member and the force behind it. This program connects mentors (alums) to mentees (students) and is for the benefit of the students of IIT Roorkee. The mentors are alums of IIT Roorkee, bringing their rich and varied life experiences. This is a cross-batch effort, with about 200 mentors from different graduation years, all over the world, and from different professions. This has benefitted about 300 students, in three cohorts, and has gotten very good feedback from the students and alumni. Dr. Kiran is also the founder member and one of the active committee members of Eighty Nine Class of Roorkee Endowment (ENCORE) awards established by the class of 1989. These awards have been running since 2014, with the goal of recognizing excellence in the students of IITR. Dr. Panesar has led this initiative, along with his batch mates (notably Pushkar Shahi, Shivajee Samdarshi, Ankur Goyal and many others) on all the aspects: setting up of the Endowment, defining its charter, fund raising, running the selection process for all years, organizing and motivating volunteers, working with IITR and so on. He has been actively involved in this from inception until now. He is ably helped in this effort by more than 20 volunteers from his batch. In addition, recently Dr. Panesar along with a team of alumni, raised funds for students during the Covid outbreak and helped 60 students of IITR.

Dr. Raju Kumar Gupta (2005 - B.Tech. - Chemical Engineering)
Dr. Raju Kumar Gupta is an Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. Dr. Gupta has made important contributions to the areas of sustainable materials, green synthesis, nanostructured materials for wastewater treatment and energy storage applications. His current research interests are photocatalysis for water remediation and CO2 capture & conversion to fuels, perovskite solar cells and energy storage devices. Dr. Gupta has been a recipient of several fellowships and awards for his outstanding career in academic and research fields. Some of the fellowships and awards include DST Inspire Faculty Award 2013, IEI Young Engineer Award (2014-15), Young Scientist Award (2014-15) and Young Faculty Research Fellowship 2018. He has authored more than 100 research articles in international journals, 3 patents, 3 books, 16 book chapters, guest edited special issues for several international journals, and his work has been cited more than 5000 times. Dr. Gupta is an editorial board member of several international journals, as well as a member of scientific bodies. Some of his significant appointments include Associate Editor for Elsevier journal ‘Solar Energy’; Editorial Board member for Nature Research journal ‘Scientific Reports’, Wiley journal ‘IET Nanodielectrics’, Elsevier journal ‘Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry’; Editorial Advisory Board member for ACS journal ‘Environmental Science & Technology Water’, and Royal Society of Chemistry journals ‘Reaction Chemistry & Engineering’ and ‘Molecular Systems Design & Engineering’.

Mr. Ankit Garg (2010 - B.Tech. - Chemical Engineering)
Mr. Ankit Garg is CEO & Co-Founder of Wakefit which is valued at more than $250 million. He leads the new product development, design, research and innovation operations of Wakefit. Entrepreneurship is his forte and he initiated Wakefit’s journey in 2015. Wakefit is his second venture. Since its inception as a start-up, Mr. Garg has always strived to ensure that Wakefit excels in the departments of innovation and customer engagement. He has adopted an approach that focuses on research and innovation and adopts a direct-from-factory model of delivery that ensures lesser costs for the customers. He was featured in the Forbes India 30 under 30 list in 2019.

Mr. Mukul Rustagi (2013 - B.Tech. - Electronics and Communication Engineering)
Mr. Mukul Rustagi is the Co-founder and CEO of Classplus, a leading B2B Ed-tech Startup that enables content creation, distribution, and monetization for all kinds of academic and non-academic educators. After completing his Engineering in 2013, Mr. Rustagi joined Futures First as a Financial Derivatives Analyst where he traded derivatives on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. When the entrepreneurial bug bit him in 2015, he decided to quit his job and start his own venture. In an illustrious career spanning 8 years, Classplus, a series C funded startup headquartered in Noida, is the second edtech startup founded by Mr. Rustagi. Classplus is valued at more than $225 million. He is a recipient of several national and international awards and honours including BW Disrupt 30 under 30 (2021), Forbes 30 under 30 Asia (2021), Forbes 30 under 30 India (2021), and was a part of the second cohort of Sequoia Capital’s coveted startup accelerator program- Surge (2019). Mr. Rustagi has been featured by leading media houses like Economic Times, YourStory, CNBC TV18 and many more for his opinions on Edtech, the Creator Economy, B2B startups etc.

The Selection Committee was comprised of the following:

1. Prof. Ajit K. Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee (Chairperson)
2. Prof. Surendra Prasad, former Director of IIT Delhi and DAA of IIT Kharagpur (BOG Nominee)
3. Prof. Devang Khakhar, former Director of IIT Bombay and DAA of IIT Delhi (BOG Nominee)
4. Prof. N.P. Padhy, 1992 Batch Institute Chair Professor (Director's Nominee)
5. Prof. Partha Roy, Dean Of Resources & Alumni Affairs, IIT Roorkee