S. Vishnu Sharma
Mahindra University was in the news once again when one of its professors won the prestigious ‘The 2021 SPIE Maria J. Yzuel Educator Award.
International Society of Optics and Photonics (SPIE) bestowed the award to Professor Bishnu Pal who is the Dean (Academics) and Professor of Natural Sciences at Ecole Centrale College of Engineering of Mahindra University.
This prestigious award bestowed to the professor at Mahindra University recognises the contribution of the teachers towards teaching optics.
Professor Pal of Mahindra University got the award in recognition of his contribution to education, outreach, research and technical programme committees of global flagship conferences and editing of four popular publications in guided wave optics and photonics.
Mahindra University professor wins great award
The award will be presented to Professor Pal of Mahindra University during annual award banquet during SPIE Optics and Photonics conference.
The conference will be held in San Deigo in USA from 1 to 5 August this year.
Vice chancellor of Mahindra University Dr. Yajulu Medury said they congratulate Professor Bishnu Pal for having been selected for the award.
Achievements of the professor stand tall and he continues to lead from the front in the field of optics and photonics, said vice chancellor of Mahindra University.
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And this is just another acknowledgement of his contribution to the sector, as several thousands of his students can vouch for.
Mahindra University is so proud to have such an eminent academic as its dean, said Dr. Yajulu.
There is hardly any recognition in the field that he has not won and his exceptional list of awards is unparalleled in the sector, he added.
Word of praised poured in from Professor Donna Strickland from Waterloo University of Canada.
Professor Donna is a Noble Laureate in Physics in 2018.
The award is a well deserved for the professor keeping in view his contributions towards training optical scientists and the incredible service he does for the optics community, said Professor Donna Strickland.
Professor Pal said it was a moment of pride winning the award from SPIE which is the world’s foremost community of optics and photonics.
SPIE has over 2,55,000 constituents from 183 countries and being appreciated by your own peer group is always heartening, said Professor Bishnu of Mahindra University.
When I look back at my career and the students that I taught and researchers that I worked with, I’m amazed at the caliber of the people I came in contact and it is always a delight to see them excel, said Dr. Bishnu.
Professor Pal has been with Mahindra Ecole Centrale since its inception in 2014.
Prior to his tenure at Mahindra University, Professor Pal worked with IIT Delhi as professor and chairperson of Department of Physics.
He has more than 45 years of teaching and research experience.
His current areas of research include Guided Wave Photonics and Optical Communication that broadly encompasses application-specific specialty optical fibers for telecommunication, mid-IR and THz photonics and also contemporary topics like silicon photonics and is widely recognized as an authority on Optoelectronics.
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Professor Pal has extensive research and consulting experience, with over 200 papers in peer reviewed journals and large number of research projects sponsored by national and international agencies.
Some of the awards Professor Pal won are Esther Hoffman Beller Medal by the Optical Society of America (OSA) in 2016.
The professor was also a winner of Professor A. Selvarajan award for outstanding contributions to Photonics education and research in 2017.
Students score big
Mahindra University was again centre of attraction when two of its students scored good marks in CAT 2020 exam.
The results of the popular exam were declared on 2 January this year.
While a 2017 batch student of Mahindra University happened to score 99.97 percent, three students from 2016 batch scored 98.25, 97.57 and 96.29 percentiles.
Mahindra University vice chancellor Dr. Yajulu Medury said their students continue to make them proud.
Be it academics research projects, or an exam or even a competition like a hackathon, they never fail to excel, said vice chancellor of Mahindra University.
‘We believe that our focus on holistic learning, accent on core concepts and fundamentals, and unstinted efforts at creating the ‘New Engineer’ are the reason why this has become more of a norm than an exception.’
We are very happy that our students are doing exceptionally well in anything that they attempt or choose to pursue.
They have scored high in their CAT exams this time around and are amongst the top scorers in the results that have been declared earlier this week, he said.
The students of Mahindra University who score high marks in CAT 2020 are from Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE) stream.
I am happy to have scored 98.25 percentile in CAT 2020 exam, said Chilamakuru Praharsha, B.Tech. (EEE) student of 2016-2020 batch.
‘Mahindra University facilitated my CAT preparation through various test prep courses that were made available on campus for interested students to opt for additional studies.’
This helped me immensely and I am hopeful that I will gain admission into the IIM of my choice”, says Praharsha.
Mahindra University is a multi-disciplinary and research-focused university based in Hyderabad that currently offers a Bachelor’s and a Ph.D. program in Engineering through its Ecole Centrale School of Engineering.
Mahindra University is likely to begin its intake for the School of Management, School of Law and Indira Mahindra School of Education from 2021-22, while intake for the School of Media and Liberal Arts, and School of Design would follow in 2022 and 2023, respectively.