List of IIT Roorkee people explained

This is a list of notable alumni and faculty of the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.

Alumni

Arts

• Lala Deen Dayal, 1866, photographer to the Viceroy of India and Nizam of Hyderabad, received the Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria in 1897^[1]

Politics

• Papias Malimba Musafiri, former Cabinet Minister of Education (June 2015 - December 2017) in the Cabinet of Rwanda^[2]

Science and Technology

• Amit Singhal, former senior vice president at Google^[3]
• Digvijai Singh, chemical engineer, former vice chancellor of University of Roorkee, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Shyam Sundar Rai, seismologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate

Others

• Sudhir K. Jain (born 1959), Vice Chancellor, Banaras Hindu University
• Nilmani Mitra (18281894), 19th century architect, designer of several palaces in Kolkata^[4]
• Henry Benedict Medlicott (18291905), Irish geologist and professor of geology
• John Underwood Bateman-Champain (18351887), British army officer and engineer in India, instrumental in laying the first electric telegraph line from Britain to India by way of the Persian Gulf
• Allan Joseph Champneys Cunningham (18421928), number theorist, formulated Mersenne numbers and Fermat numbers
• Charles Palmer (18471940), last surviving man to hold the Lucknow medal for his role in the defence of the Residency in Lucknow during the Indian Rebellion of 1857
• Sir Ganga Ram (18511927), a leading philanthropist and agriculturist. A civil engineer by profession and a graduate of the 1873 batch, Sir Ganga Ram supervised the construction of several prominent structures in Punjab. Referred to as 'Father of modern Lahore'.^[5]
• William Willcocks (18521932), British civil engineer who graduated from 1872 batch, remembered as a renowned irrigation engineer, having proposed the first Aswan Dam and undertaken major projects of irrigation in South Africa and Turkey
• Baba Sawan Singh (18581948), second Satguru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas
• Frederic Oscar Oertel (18621942), Indian art historian and archaeologist
• S.V. Setty (18791918), The first Indian Aviator^[6]
• Chaudhry Niaz Ali Khan (18801976), founder of the Dar ul Islam Movement and the Dar ul Islam Trust in South Asia and the Dar ul Islam Trust Institutes in Pathankot, India and Jauharabad, Pakistan
• Ajudhiya Nath Khosla (18921984), eminent Indian engineer, educationist, visionary and recipient of second highest civilian honor of India — Padma Vibhushan, awarded in 1977, served as member of the Planning Commission, Governor of Orissa, president of National Science Academy and vice chancellor of the University of Roorkee (now IIT Roorkee)
• Peter de Noronha (18971970), businessman, philanthropist, knighted by Pope Paul VI in 1965 for his work for the Christian community in India
• Kanwar Sen (18991979), Chief Engineer of Bikaner credited with the creation of the Indira Gandhi canal in Rajasthan and Punjab, awarded Padma Bhushan in 1956
• Ghananand Pande (19021995), chairman of Indian Railways in 1954 and chairman of Hindustan Steels, awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1969
• Jai Krishna (19121999), eminent scholar on earthquake engineering, instrumental in setting up the first and the only earthquake engineering department in India, at IIT Roorkee, awarded Padma Bhushan in 1956, served as Vice Chancellor of the University of Roorkee in 1969
• Jaiprakash Gaur (born 1930), founder chairman of Jaiprakash Associates and Jaypee Group of companies, ranked by Forbes magazine as the 48th-richest person in India^[7]
• A. S. Arya (born 1931), National Seismic advisor and Padma Shri awardee^[8]
• G. D. Agrawal (born 1932), eminent environmental engineer, Save Ganga activist and former head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at IIT Kanpur, notable for his successful fast in 2009 to stop the damming of the Bhagirathi River^[9]
• Narendra Patni (19432014), founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Patni Computer Systems^[10]
• Pradip Baijal (born 1944), IAS and former chairman Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)^[11]
• Sri Niwas, (1946–2012) geophysicist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Vinita Gupta (born 1949), founder, CEO of Quick Eagle Networks and first Indian-origin-woman to take her company public^[12]
• Anirudh Agarwal (born 1949), Indian character actor.
• Rakesh Agrawal (born 1954), Member, National Academy of Engineering, ex-Microsoft Fellow and ex-IBM fellow widely known as the 'Father of Data Mining'^[13]
• Mangu Singh (born 1955), managing director of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited
• Dinesh Paliwal (born 1957), president and chief executive officer of Harman International Industries^[14]
• Naveen Jain (born 1959), founder and CEO of Intelius, founder of Moon Express, InfoSpace^[15]
• Ajit Gupta (born 1962), founder, president, CEO of Aryaka; founder, chairman of AAyuja;^[16] founder, ex-CEO of Speedera; founder, chairman of Jantakhoj^[17]
• Sumit Jain (born 1984), co-founder and CEO of Opentalk | co-founder and ex-CEO of Indian real estate portal Commonfloor.com
• Harsh Gupta (born 1942), Indian earth scientist and seismologist, known for his pioneering work on estimation of reservoir-induced earthquakes.
• Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar CEO and MD of Razorpay, USD 7.5 BN Valued, a hugely successful payments company
• Prakash Kumar Singh,former chairman of Steel Authority of India Limited

Faculty

• Deepak Kumar, condensed matter physicist and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize recipient
• Pravindra Kumar, bioinformatician
• Vinod Kumar Gaur, seismologist and former director of the National Geophysical Research Institute^[18]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Raja Deen Dayal, India's 'warrior of photography' - DORA. alumni.iitr.ac.in. 2019-09-28.
2. News: Musafiri appointed as new Education minister. 2015-06-25. The New Times. 2019-09-28. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20190928113543/https://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/190052. 2019-09-28.
3. News: Amit Singhal Google Fellow who rewrote the search engine. The Times Of India.
4. News: 28 August 2011 . First Engineer . https://web.archive.org/web/20121102174311/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110828/jsp/calcutta/story_14434405.jsp . dead . 2 November 2012 . The Telegraph . Calcutta . 31 August 2011.
5. Web site: 'Father of Modern Lahore' Remembered on Anniversary . Gill . Anjum . 12 July 2004 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110606153306/http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_12-7-2004_pg7_24 . 6 June 2011 . 15 December 2011.
6. Web site: Madras aviation – in peace & war. M. Matheswaran. Madras Musings. 6 October 2017 . 2017, madrasmusings.com.
7. News: India's Richest . https://web.archive.org/web/20101003082432/http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/77/india-rich-10_Jaiprakash-Gaur_JVTI.html . dead . 3 October 2010 . 15 December 2011 . Forbes . 29 September 2010.
8. Web site: Indian Fellow . https://web.archive.org/web/20160304121304/http://insaindia.org/detail.php?id=N81-0025 . dead . 4 March 2016 . Indian National Science Academy . 2015 . 10 November 2015 .
9. Web site: Professor GD Agrawal's Fast unto death over Dam on Bhagirathi . Kapoor . Desh . 21 May 2008 . Drishtikone . 2 March 2010.
10. Web site: N. Patni: Executive Profile & Biography – BusinessWeek . https://web.archive.org/web/20110519192414/http://investing.businessweek.com/businessweek/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=2855899&ticker=PATNI:IN&previousCapId=1331566&previousTitle=Patni%20Computer%20Systems%20Ltd. . dead . 19 May 2011 . investing.businessweek.com . 19 May 2011.
11. Web site: Profile of Pradip Baijal . 29 June 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110715111309/http://pradipbaijal.com/profile.html . 15 July 2011 .
12. Book: Hirahara, Naomi. Distinguished Asian American business leaders. 2003. Greenwood Publishing Group. 9781573563444. 67–69.
13. Web site: Rakesh Agrawal.
14. Web site: Dinesh C. Paliwal . Harman . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150325132158/http://news.harman.com/Leadership-Team/Dinesh-C-Paliwal-77.aspx . 25 March 2015 .
15. Web site: Intelius' Naveen Jain Turns to Moon Mining, Philanthropy. Richard Springer. 9 May 2011. indiawest.com. 5 June 2011. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110928202847/http://www.indiawest.com/readmore.aspx?id=3263&sid=1. 28 September 2011.
16. Web site: Management Team AAyuja.
17. Web site: www.JantaKhoj.com. JantaKhoj. 2 October 2011.
18. Web site: Indian Fellow. Indian National Science Academy. https://web.archive.org/web/20171012043728/http://insaindia.res.in/detail/N80-0256. 2017-10-12. live. 2019-08-24.