# List of IIT Madras people

This is a list of notable alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.

## Academia
### Deans, directors, and presidents

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Timothy A. Gonsalves | BTech 1976 | 1st director of Indian Institute of Technology Mandi |
| Ramayya Krishna | | Dean of the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University |
| Shashi Nambisan | BTech 1984 | Professor of Civil Engineering at University of Tennessee Knoxville; ex-Director of the Center for Transportation Research and Education at Iowa State University) |
| Gangan Pratap | BTech 1974; PhD 1978 | Former director National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources; honorary professor, APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University; IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus Award—1999 |
| Bhaskar Ramamurthi | BTech 1980 | Professor of Electrical Engineering; Director of the Institute at IIT Madras; Doyens of Madras |
| Govindan Sundararajan | BTech 1976 | Former director, International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI); Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology—1994; Padma Shri |
| B. N. Suresh | MTech 1969 | Founder Director (2007–2010) Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology; Padma Bhushan—2013; Padma Shri—2002; IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus Award—2004 |
| Subra Suresh | BTech 1977 | President of Carnegie Mellon University; former director of the National Science Foundation; former Dean of Engineering at MIT |

### Professors and scholars

| Name | Class year | Notability | References |
| Arumugam Manthiram | PhD 1980 | Professor of Mechanical Engineering at University of Texas at Austin; Inventor of polyanion cathodes for lithium ion batteries; Delivered the 2019 Nobel Prize Lecture in Chemistry; IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus Award - 2015 | |
| Anant Agarwal | BTech 1982 | Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT; CEO of EdX; holds a Guinness World Record for the largest microphone array; IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus Award – 2014 | |
| Animashree Anandkumar | BTech 2004 | Bren Professor of Computing at California Institute of Technology; director of machine learning research at NVIDIA | |
| G. K. Ananthasuresh | BTech 1989 | Professor at Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru; Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology | |
| Hari Balakrishnan | BTech 1993 | Fujitsu Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT; ACM SIGCOMM Test of Time Award—2011; ACM SIGMOBILE Test of Time Award—2017, 2018; ACM SIGOPS Hall of Fame Award—2015; ACM SIGMOD Test of Time Award—2017; 2020 Infosys Prize; 2021 IEEE Koji Kobayashi Award for Computers and Communications; Member of the National Academy of Engineering; Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences | |
| Dipankar Banerjee | BTech 1974 | Professor in the Department of Materials Engineering Engineering of the Indian Institute of Science | |
| Narayanan Chandrakumar | MSc 1972 | Chemical Physicist; Professor of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Madras; Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology—1996; J. C. Bose National Fellowship—2009 | |
| K. Mani Chandy | BTech 1965 | Simon Ramo Professor of Computer Science at the California Institute of Technology; A. A. Michelson Award of CMG (the Computer Measurement Group); Sherman Fairchild Fellowship; IEEE Koji Kobayashi Award for Computers and Communications; Fellow of the IEEE; Member of the National Academy of Engineering; 2014 Dijkstra Prize | |
| Atul Chokshi | BTech 1980 | Professor, Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore; Swarnajayanti Presidential Young Investigator Award; MRSI Medal; Metallurgist of the Year Award (Ministry of Steel & Mines); Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, G.D. Birla Gold Medal (IIM); IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus Award | |
| S. A. Choudum | PhD 1974 | Professor at the Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras | |
| Premkumar Devanbu | B.Tech 1977 | Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of California, Davis; ACM SIGSOFT Outstanding Research Award; Alexander von Humboldt Research Award; IEEE Computer Society Harlan Mills Award | |
| Venkatesan Guruswami | BTech 1997 | Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University; ex-faculty at University of Washington | |
| Viswanathan Kumaran | BTech 1987 | Professor, Indian Institute of Science | |
| L. Mahadevan | BTech 1986 | de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, Physics and Biology, Harvard University; MacArthur Fellow 2009; F.R.S. 2016 | |
| Pinaki Majumdar | MTech 1990 | Professor at Harish-Chandra Research Institute; Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology—2007 | |
| Pranawachandra Deshmukh | PhD 1979 | Adjunct professor of physics at Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati; mentor and convener, CAMOST, a joint initiative of Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Tirupati (since 2020) | |
| C. G. Krishnadas Nair | BTech 1964 | Author; Metallurgist; Padma Shri Laureate; IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus Award—1996 | |
| Ramarathnam Narasimhan | BTech 1982 | Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science; IIT Madras Distinguished Alumni Award – 2016 | |
| Arvind Narayanan | BTech 2004 | Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University; PET Award for Outstanding Research in Privacy Enhancing Technology—2014 | |
| Sethuraman Panchanathan | MTech 1986 | Executive Vice President at ASU Knowledge Enterprise Development; Chief Research and Innovation Officer at Arizona State University (ASU) | |
| Shanthi Pavan | BTech 1995 | Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras | |
| A. G. Ramakrishnan | MTech 1982; PhD 1989 | Professor at Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru; Member, Karnataka Knowledge Commission, Senate Member, IIIT Allahabad; Manthan Awards 2014 and 2015; Founder-director of RaGaVeRa Indic Technologies Pvt Ltd. | [59][60][61][62][63] [64] |
| B.S. Sathyaprakash | MSc Phys. 1981 | Bert Elsbach Professor of Physics The Pennsylvania State University; Professor of Gravitational Physics Cardiff University; Associate, International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Bangalore, India; Sathyaprakash Research Group | |
| Mahadev Satyanarayanan | | Carnegie Group Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University; Principal architect and implementor of the Andrew File System (AFS) | |
| V. Srinivasan | BTech 1966 | The Adams Distinguished Professor of Management, Emeritus, Stanford University; IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus Award—2001 | |
| Marti G. Subrahmanyam | | Charles E. Merrill Professor of Finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University | |
| Arun Sundararajan | | Professor at Stern School of Business, New York University | |
| Rusi Taleyarkhan | BTech 1977 | Professor, Nuclear Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana | |
| Sridhar Tayur | | Ford Distinguished Research Chair and Professor of Operations Management at the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University; founder, SmartOps and OrganJet | |
| Jayant B. Udgaonkar | MSc 1981 | Senior Professor, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research; J. C. Bose National fellow; Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Biological Sciences – 2000; IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus Award – 2011; G. N. Ramachandran Gold Medal – 2011 | |
| Karthik Sarma | BTech 1996 | Founder and Managing Partner, SRS Investment Management, USA | |
| Vidhya Srinivasan | BTech 2000 | Vice President and General Manager, Google Search Advertising and Experiences Google USA | |
| Shuba Kumar | BTech 1994 | Managing Director, Natesan Synchrones Pvt. Ltd. INDIA | |
| Nagaraja Rao Harshadeep | BTech 1988 | Global Lead, World Bank USA | |
| Jayarao ‘Bob’ Balaram | BTech 1980 | Chief Engineer, Mars Helicopter Project, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA USA | |
| Chakrapani. R. V | BTech 1984 | Managing Director, Aarvee Associates INDIA | |

## Arts and entertainment

| Name | Class year | Notability | References |
| R. Prasanna | | Guitarist; Life Time Achievement Award, 2003 from Shankaracharya Shri. Jayendra Saraswathi swamigal of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham | |
| S. Sowmya | MSc 1992 | Carnatic music singer; Sangita Kalanidhi Award—2019 | |

## Humanities and social sciences

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Nirmalananda Swamiji | MTech 1996 | Head of Adichunchanagiri Hills Math |
| Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj | BTech 1967 | Spiritual leader at Science of Spirituality; retired from Bell Labs in 1989 |
| Balaji Sampath | BTech 1994 | Founder and Secretary of NGO Association for India's Development India Chapter |

## Industry

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| T. K. Alex | MTech 1971 | Director at ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore, 2008–2012 |
| B. Jayant Baliga | BTech 1969; DSc (Honoris Causea) 2016 | Inventor of the Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistor; National Medal of Technology and Innovation Award—2010; IEEE Medal of Honor—2014; IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus Award—1999 |
| Krishna Bharat | | Creator of Google News; principal scientist, Google |
| Gururaj Deshpande | BTech 1973 | Founder of Sycamore Networks; chairman at Tejas Networks; Distinguished Alumnus Awardee from IIT Madras in 1998 |
| Kris Gopalakrishnan | MSc 1977; MTech 1979 | Padma Bhushan Laureate; co-founder of Infosys; President of Confederation of Indian Industry; IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus Award—1998 |
| Ramanathan V. Guha | | Inventor of RSS feed technology; computer scientist at Google; won the Distinguished Alumnus award from IIT Madras in 2013 |
| Vic Gundotra | | Ex-Senior Vice President, Social for Google; widely believed to be the mastermind behind Google Plus; previously worked at Microsoft |
| Venky Harinarayan | BTech 1988 | Kosmix co-founder; won the Distinguished Alumnus award from IIT Madras in 2013 |
| Jai Menon | | IBM Fellow; CTO and VP, Technical Strategy, IBM Systems and Technology Group; significant contributor to RAID technology; awarded Distinguished Alumnus award by IIT Madras in 2006 |
| C. Mohan | BTech 1977 | IBM Fellow at IBM Almaden Research Center and Former IBM India Chief Scientist; famous for his work on Database systems and in particular the ARIES technology; awarded Distinguished Alumnus award by IIT Madras in 2003 |
| B Muthuraman | BTech 1966 | Managing Director of Tata Steel; Padma Bhushan Laureate; IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus Award—1997 |
| Prabhakar Raghavan | | Vice President of Engineering at Google; former head of Yahoo! Labs |
| Anand Rajaraman | | Founder of Junglee and Kosmix.com with Venky Harinarayan; won the Distinguished Alumnus award from IIT Madras in 2013 |
| Raghu Ramakrishnan | | Technical Fellow at Microsoft; former vice-president and research fellow at Yahoo! Research; professor of computer science at the University of Wisconsin Madison; won the Distinguished Alumnus award from IIT Madras in 2007 |
| Venkat Rangan | BTech 1981 | Co-founder and CTO at Clearwell Systems; served as Professor of Computer Science at University of California, San Diego |
| P. S. Veeraraghavan | MTech 1971 | Director at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Trivandrum, 2008–2012; distinguished scientist at ISRO and Director, ISRO Inertial Systems Unit |
| Prem Watsa | BTech 1971 | Founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Fairfax Financial Holdings, Toronto, Canada; Member of the Order of Canada; IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus Award—1999 |
| Umesh Subramanian | BTech 1993 | CTO of Citadel Securities (2018-Present); CTO of Goldman Sachs (2014-2018) |
| Sridhar Ramaswamy | BTech 1989 | CEO of Snowflake (2024 - Present) |
| Aravind Srinivas | BTech 2017 | CEO of Perplexity AI (2022 - Present) |
| Vineeta Singh | BTech 2005 | CEO of Sugar Cosmetics (2015 - Present) |
| Sridhar Vembu | BTech 1989 | Co-Founder and former CEO of Zoho Corporation |
| Krishna Bharat | BTech 1991 | Distinguished Research Scientist at Google. |
| Dr. S. Somanath | Ph. D 2024 | Chairman, Indian Space Research Organization. |
| Jaishree Deshpande | MS 1975 | Trustee and Founder of Deshpande Foundation. |
| Ramesh Srinivasan | BTech 1992 | Senior Partner, Mckinsey & Co, USA. |
| Kamesh Rao | BTech 1979 | CEO, GMR Airports Developers Ltd, India |
| Vellayan Subbiah | BTech 1990 | Chairman, Cholamandalam. Investment and Finance, India |
| Venkat Rangan | BTech 1981 | CTO, Clari Inc |
| GDS Ramkumar | BTech 1990 | Head of Engineering, Apple Info Apps |
| Sankaran Naren | BTech 1987 | CIO, ICICI Prudential AMC |
| Mili Majumdar | MTech 1992 | Managing Director, Green Building Council of India and Senior Vice President U.S. Green Building Council |
| Palanivel Veeramuthuvel | Ph.D 2016 | Project Director Chandrayaan 3, ISRO |
| Unnikrishnan Nair | Ph.D 2011 | Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), India |
| Vijay Ullal | BTech 1980 | Founder and CEO Seabed VC |
| M. P. Paranthaman | Ph.D 1988 | Distinguished Corporate Fellow, Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory USA |
| Ram Sundaram | BTech 1988 | Former Partner, Goldman Sachs USA |
| Azeez Mohammed | BTech 1993 | President and Chief Executive Officer, Covanta Holding Corporation |
| Durga Malladi | BTech 1993 | Senior Vice President and General Manager, Qualcomm USA |
| Naveen Tahilyani | BTech 1995 | CEO and MD, TATA AIA India |

## Government and politics

| Name | Class year | Notability | References |
| Raju Narayana Swamy | | IAS Officer; Secretary to Government, General Administration, Sainik Welfare, Kerala; former Commissioner of the Civil Supplies Department of Kerala | |
Dedipya Agarwal (department of Rajasthan) polticial department

## Military and defense

| Name | Class year | Notability | References |
| S. Christopher | PhD 1987 | Secretary, Department of Defence R & D and DG @ DRDO; Defence Research and Development Organisation – Outstanding Scientist for 2012; IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus Award—2016 | |
| Sudhir Kumar Mishra | MTech 1987 | Distinguished Scientist & Director General @ DRDO; CEO of BrahMos Aerospace; IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus Award—2018 | |

## Notable faculty

* Name
* Thalappil Pradeep
* M. Thenmozhi
* Ashok Jhunjhunwala