Entering the hallowed campus of IITs is a dream that half of India sees, but only the crème de la crème succeed, and there’s no doubt about the fact that many students aspire to join this college.
Over the years, a lot of students from IITs have made India proud and have inspired generations of students to work harder to get in.
Two ex IITians Dr Subhash Kot and Dr Manu Prakash, from Bombay and Kanpur respectively, have won the esteemed MacArthur ‘genius grant’ award worth $625,000 ( approximately 4 crores).
Both the doctors have received the fellowship for their creativity in their field of interest and both will receive the amount over the course of 5 years.
Dr Subhash Kot studied from IIT Bombay and is a well known theoretical computer scientist at New York University. Under his reign, he solved some of the biggest problems of computer complexity and has developed the Unique Games Conjecture.
“If you believe that one specific problem is hard to solve, lots and lots of other problems, which computer scientists are very interested in are also hard to solve.” says a diligent Kot.
Dr Manu, on the other hand, is a pass out from IIT Kanpur is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University. He developed a phenomenal low-cost paper microscope that costs less than 1 USD.
The foldable microscope has been designed on a single sheet of paper and has the potential to promote education and medical facilities in rural areas.
Dr Manu has also developed a clock that works using tiny water droplets.
“Often a challenge in technology deployment is building engaged local communities that take ownership of ideas and deployment. I’d started thinking about this connection between science education and global health,” said Dr Manu when asked about his discoveries.
Apart from these two, 21 other scientists were also given the fellowship in various fields including science, art and civil rights.
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