Chair on Narayana Murthy set up at IIT-Madras

Chennai, April 18 (IANS) Software major Infosys co-founder and IIT-Madras alumni Kris Gopalakrishnan on Saturday set up a Chair for computational brain research at his alma-mater named after his colleague NR Narayana Murthy, IIT-Madras said.

This is the second Chair set up by Gopalakrishnan.

In a statement issued here, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) said: “The first one was named after Professor H.N. Mahabala, retired faculty of the IIT-Madras and the second chair has been named after his colleague, co-founder of Infosys and dear friend NR Narayana Murthy.”

Gopalakrishnan will set up a total of three Chairs each with an endowment of Rs.10 crore.

The Chairs will complement a “Brain Research Centre” that will come up in Bengaluru, as well as Chairs created in IISc, Bengaluru and post-doctoral fellows sponsored at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA, the statement said.

“It is a very special day in my life today and I would like to thank Narayana Murthy, the person who played an important role in my life by teaching me how to integrate to the corporate life,” Gopalakrishnan was quoted as saying in the statement.

“I also thank IIT Madras for shaping me for what I am today. I have benefited a lot from my time at IIT, Madras. I was introduced to computers while at IIT, and my life was changed by the stint here,” he said.