To establish research partnership between India, US.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Infosys co-founder Senapathy Gopalakrishnan has donated $1.8 million to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), as part of an effort to establish a vital research partnership linking institutions in the US and India.
Gopalakrishnan’s donation, which was announced on Friday, was made in order to link up CMU with the Indian Institute of Science’s (IIS) Center for Brain Research in Bangalore. In a press release, CMU President Subra Suresh, himself of Indian origin, expressed his gratitude for Gopalakrishnan’s generous donation.
“I am profoundly grateful to Kris for his generous gift and his wonderful support of this partnership between CMU and IISc,” said Suresh. “One of the most pressing challenges facing humanity is to understand the human brain. Our hope is that this new research collaboration will lead to discoveries about neuro–degenerative diseases that afflict the aging population, and that those findings help improve our diagnostic and treatment capabilities for such diseases.”
Another important connection between CMU and IIS is Professor Padmanabhan Balaram, the director of the IIS, who is an alumnus of the venerable Pittsburgh engineering school. In a statement of his own, Balaram thanked Gopalakrishnan and said he was looking forward to “the enormous impact a collaboration of the kind envisioned here between CMU and IIS will have in enhancing our understanding of the human brain.”
According to figures provided by the school, CMU has over 1,000 students directly from India, which comprises about 10% of the school’s entire student body. India is also the country with the second-highest concentration of alumni from CMU, and as an increasing number of US universities forge ties with India, CMU has gotten a valuable jump-start from Gopalakrishnan.
A co-founder of the Indian IT giant, Gopalakrishnan is currently a Vice-Chairman of the Board for Infosys, and is also the 2013-2014 President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). He is an alumnus of IIT Madras, having earned his M.Sc. and M.Tech in Physics and Computer Science, respectively.
“Carnegie Mellon University is a world-renowned leader in many areas of research and education. I am very pleased to support President Subra Suresh’s strategic vision for the collaboration between CMU and IISc through this gift so that we can address one of the grand challenges of our times by understanding the human brain,” Gopalakrishnan said.