IIT Kharagpur will honour 13 alumni with the Distinguished Alumnus Award during its 64th Convocation on July 20, the institute has said in a statement. The profiles of awardees include top academicians and eminent scientists in India and abroad, a defence professional and a social contributor, it said. 

Among the awardees from academia are Ashim Kumar Datta of Cornell University, an expert in the physics of food, Chaitali Chakrabarti of Arizona State University, an expert in VLSI, and Narayan B.T. Mandayam of Rutgers University, an expert in wireless information network.

Ramesh Jain of University of California, Irvine, who is also an entrepreneur driven by his interests in real time data, perception, and social networks, Sudipta Seal of University of Central Florida, a global champion in ceramics, AHaresh Lalvani of Pratt Institute, an artist-inventor and globally renowned architect and Prof. Pushpak Bhattacharyya, Director, IIT Patna, also figure in the list. Among the outstanding contributors from the field of industrial resarch and development are V. Narayanan, Director, LPSC at ISRO, an expert in cryogenic rocket propulsion technology, Samir V. Kamat, Director General, Naval Systems and Materials at DRDO, Santanu Chaudhury, Director, CSIR-CEERI, Pilani and Parag V. Havaldar, who was awarded Oscar in Technical category last year.

The award list includes exemplary achievers such as Lt Gen Utpal Bhattacharyya (retd), a 1971 and Kargil war hero and a management expert, and Swami Smaranananda, monk, yoga guru and General Secretary of Yogoda Satsanga Society of India Paramahansa Yogananda Path, Ranchi.

President Ram Nath Kovind will be the chief guest for the Convocation ceremony.