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K. P. Abraham Memorial Fund

Appeal

The Indian Institute of Science and the Department of Materials Engineering announce the launch of the KP Abraham Memorial Fund. We aim to generate a corpus of at least Rs. 2 crores that will serve the twin objectives of partially equipping laboratories in our new building and of endowing a visiting faculty chair.

Professor Kadavil Poulose Abraham (1920-2011) served the department for 21 years, including the period 1972-1977 when he was the fourth Head of the Department. As a teacher, Professor Abraham inspired many generations of students through his lectures on thermodynamics and extractive metallurgy. His teaching covered both iron & steel and nonferrous metals. He helped establish laboratories in Process Metallurgy, some of which were pioneering in the Indian scene. When that generation of alumni reflects on the solidity of the fundamentals with which they left IISc, it is in large part a testimony to the academic excellence that Professor Abraham nurtured. His students went on to become leading metallurgists and materials scientists, both, in academic institutions as well as in industry, in India and abroad. In launching this appeal, the Institute and the department, where he spent the major part of his working life, would like to pay tribute to his accomplishments in laying the foundations for what has now become a vibrant centre for teaching and research in the field of materials in India.

The present appeal follows our earlier tribute to Professor Brahm Prakash, the first Indian Head of the Department, which saw the establishment of the Prof Brahm Prakash Visiting Chair and Prof Brahm Prakash Laboratory by generating resources of the order of Rs 1 crore from Government institutions, alumni, and well wishers, nearly 2 decades ago.

The department has just commenced the construction of a 4-storeyed building which will house about 2500 square metres of laboratories, classrooms and offices to accommodate our expanding needs that arise from a research student strength that now exceeds 110, a new Undergraduate programme, in addition to the traditional Masters and in the diversification of our research interests to include electronic materials, polymers and bio-engineering. The KP Abraham Chair Professorship will add to existing chairs to enable distinguished scientists to spend significant periods of time at IISc.

We invite alumni and well-wishers to contribute generously to the fund (Contributions received so far Rs.70.20 Lakhs, for details Click here). Cheques may be drawn in favour of Registrar, Indian Institute of Science – KP Abraham Memorial Fund. Donations from Indian citizens will attract Tax relief to the extent of 100% of the donation without limit under section 35(i)(ii) OR sec 80G(2)(a)(iiif). Wire transfer details are given below:

Name of institution: Indian Institute of Science
Name of Bank: State Bank of India, IISc Branch, Bangalore 560012, India
Account Name: Registrar, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012
Account Number: 317 280 981 70
Swift Code: SBI NIN BB 425
MICR Code: 560002020
IFSC Code Number: SBIN 000 2215
IISc PAN Number: AAATI 1501 J
IISc TAN Number: BLRI 00710D

Chair, Department of Materials Engineering
Indian Institute of Science, Banagalore 560012, India
chair.mte_AT_materials.iisc.ac.in

Contributions Received

As on February 20, 2016

The KPA appeal was formally approved in August 2012 and launched on January 16th, 2013, at the golden jubilee reunion of the 1962 batch with major contributions from students of the 62, 63 and 64 batches who had gathered on this occasion at the department.

The contributions received are shown below and an amount of Rs. 70.20 lakhs has been received so for. The target is Rs. 2 crores. For details on how to donate, please go to (link to main appeal)

More than 10 Lakhs
Aswin M.Shah, B.E. 1969
R.Sridhar, B.E. 1964

1 – 5 Lakhs
Anbu Varathan, B.E. 1986
Ashok Sinha, B.E. 1964
S.S.Balakrishna, M.E. 1965-67
N.Balasubramanian, B.E. 1962
N.Durai Raghavan, B.E. 1962
C.V.Hari Rao, B.E. 1963
Kailash Joshi, B.E. 1962
Murali Narayana Madhav, B.E. 1963
Pradip P
Raj Raheja, B.E. 1962
Ramamoorthy Ramesh, B.E. 1983
S.Ranganathan, B.E. 1962
Sairamkumar Jayaraman, B.E. 1989
S.Seetharaman, Ph.D.
Sridhar Seetharaman
Subhash Mahajan, B.E. 1961
K.N.Subramanian, B.E. 1964
Suresh Sundarraj, B.E. 1986-89
Tummala Rao, B.E. 1963
Vishu Dosaj, B.E. 1967
1963 & 1964 B.E.(Met) class
Golden Reunion (BE-1965, 66 & 68)

upto 1 Lakh
U.Anand, B.E. 1989
H.S.Ananda Kumar, M.E. 1963-64
Banninthiah
Bhaskar Majumdar, Ph.D. 1996
Brij Moudgil, B.E. 1968
U.Balachandran, M.E. 1977
Dheepa Srinivasan, Ph.D. 1999
Joysurya Basu, Ph.D. 2005
Krishna Kant Prasad, Ph.D. 1972
R.Krishnan
R.V.Krishnan, B.E. 1967
Kumar Narayanan, B.E. 1986-89
Manjini Sambandam, M.E. 1989
S.K.Mohanty, B.E. 1962
N.K.Mukhopadhyay, Ph.D.
B.S.Murthy, Ph.D. 1992
Nagarajan Rajagopalan, Ph.D. 1995
K.A.Natarajan, B.E. 1964
Nilesh P Gurao, Ph.D. 2010
M Phaniraj, Ph.D. 2005
Randhir Singh, M.E. 2003
Ranjan Datta, M.E. 2002
C.Ravindran, B.E. 1967
Sanak Mishra, B.E. 1968
Satish Kailash
A.O.Surendranath, M.E. 1984
P.Suryanarayan, B.E. 1967
S.Swaminathan, B.E. 1986-89
A.Vallabhanath
V.Venkateswaran, B.E. 1972
N.Viswanathan, Ph.D. 1997
IWIS-2014 (Iron and Steel making)
ICMR-2016 conference
M/s Icon Analytical

Manish Narayan Memorial Endowment Fund

Appeal

Dear Friends,

Nearly 2 decades ago, the 1989-93 batch of M.E .(Integrated) seeded the Manish Narayan Fund (MNF) at Department of Metallurgy (now Materials Engineering) at IISc in memory of Manish. Theirs was a far-sighted and touching gesture whose implications could not have been realized at that time. Because this fund has now grown into a corpus of about 30 lakhs, thanks to subsequent donations from alumni and other funds generated through the Institute.

In the early years of this endowment, the fund was small and the number of awards given annually were less than 2; sometimes none. Fast forward to today and we now disburse Rs. 25000 ($ 400) to about 10-11 students, annually, from the interest received on this corpus, to help them travel and present talks at international conferences. Where do we want to be in future? That is why I am writing to you now to appeal to your generosity once again.

Our department now has 110 Ph.D. students, for whom, exposure to international conferences is no longer a luxury but an integral part of their training. It builds confidence, makes them realize where the cutting edge of their field is and helps them to network with professionals. In many instances, such visits help with identifying job opportunities. I believe that each student should attend a major meeting at least once in their tenure at IISc and that MNF should give them a seed grant that is sufficient for them to approach other funding agencies: this means quadrupling our corpus from 30 lakhs to at least 1.2 crores.

As part of the recently held Global Alumni Conference of IISc, I had the pleasure of meeting Krishna Kummamuru and discussing the prospect of a renewed appeal. I am delighted to report that he and his friends were enthusiastic in their support and that we have, in fact, had an immediate response from Sankaranarayanan Balasubramanian who has announced his contribution of Rs. 2.4 lakhs. Details of how you can donate are given in the following page.

In urging you to contribute to the best of your ability, I am really asking you to keep Manish’s memory alive in a cause that will help our students cope with this increasingly inter-linked and globalised world.

Do not hesitate to write if you need any more information.

With best wishes from all of us here at Materials Engineering, Yours sincerely, Chair of Materials Engineering

HOW YOU CAN DONATE (Please send a copy of your transaction details to Materials Engineering (chair.mte_AT_materials.iisc.ac.in) so that we can ensure proper crediting of the funds to the fund.)

INDIA Cheques payable to “The Registrar, IISc (Manish Narayan Memorial Award)” may be sent to The Chairman, Department of Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012. Wire transfer details are given below:

Donations from Indian citizens will attract Tax relief to the extent of 100% of the donation without limit under section 35(i)(ii) OR sec 80G(2)(a)(iiif).

USA Donations in the US will attract tax relief if they are made to “IISc Alumni Association of North America (AANA)”, and sent to 897 Independence Ave, 4 C, Mountain View, CA 94043 (please specify that it is to be sent to Chairman, Materials Engineering for the Manish Narayan Fund and send us a copy of your correspondence)

IISc AANA is a Tax-exempt organization and is a Public Benefit not-profit organization with 501(c) status. Address: 897 Independence Ave, 4 C, Mountain View, CA 94043. You can get more details about IISc AANA from the web site www.iiscaana.org

Click this link to verify Tax-Exempt Status.

Donors

Anuradha, Ashok Kumar Ray
Balaji Viswanathan, S.Baranidharan, Bhanu Prasad
Deepa Srinivasan, M.Divakar
B.Ganesh, George K., Gopal Hariharan
Harsha
Jaydeep Sarkar, T.Jayaprakash (JP), Jayashree, Joe Michael
K.Krishna (KK)
Lakshmi, Lakshmi Narasimhan, V.Laxminarayan
Matheswaran Marudachalam, M.Matheswaran, N.K.Mukhopadhyay, R.Mukundan (Mukku), Murali (PC)
P.Nagarajan, Nagendra Nagabhushana, Narayanaswamy
Pavan Kumar Sharma
S.Raghunath, Rajkumar Rammohan, V.K.Raju, S.Ramanathan, Rao Tummala, C.S.Ravi, S.Ravi (S), V.A.Ravi
Sanjai, Sanjeev, Sankaranarayanan Balasubramanian, A.Saravanan, Shankaraman, Sheikh Manjura Hoque, V.Shivakumar, Srikant Gollapudi, B.Srinivasan, V.Srinivasan (Karupu), V.Srinivasan (olli), Srinivasa Rao Boddapti, Sudhir, Sudiptha Pramanik
Thyagarajan
Ch.Udaya Bhaskar
K.K.Venkataraman (KKV), V.Vijayalakshmi
ICMR-2016 (Conference), Design 2007 (Conference)
Perspectives in Physical Metallurgy and Materials Science (Conference)
Light Materials Science & Technology (Conference)
Quasicrystals (Conference), Nano2006 (Conference)
Grant from Indian Institute of Science

Snippets about Manish

Manish, We always remember you….

He turned out to be the most likable guy I have ever met. – Sanjeev

” If I could recollect the exact day, it was July the 28th, 1989 that I first happened to meet this guy, Manish Narayan. It was my first day at I.I.Sc. We were supposed to assemble at the TATA INSTITUTE main lobby near the Main Entrance by 8.00 AM and I was late by about an hour. The hall was Jam-packed and the Chairman had completed his introductory speech by then. I felt nervous when a section of the audience turned back and starred at me for being late. The function was nearly getting over when I noticed a guy walking into the hall through the rear entrance. He immediately caught my attention. A typical Bangalorian guy, wearing a leather Jacket and a goggles. I had never been to bangalore before but had heard that most of the guys in Bangalore were typically a freak-out character.

After the function, I never had a chance to meet this guy for some days. I did not see him in the hostel during the ragging sessions when the seniors were terrorizing us. Being a localite, I presume, he avoided staying at the hostel during the ragging sessions. I dont recollect seeing him at Metallurgy department during that time. Only after a couple of weeks I started hearing about Manish Narayan. The seniors judged him as one of the few pleasing guys who joined along with me. Probably he covered the seniors with his innocent looks and smile. He had tremendous sense of humor. He spoke Tamil quite differently from us (Kannada mixed Tamil) and this made him the center of attraction during any discussion. He ability to communicate fluently in Hindi, Kannada (only person to speak Kannada in our class) and ofcourse English, landed him in trouble. He would be the guy to enter the Professors room first when the students decide to get the Prof.s permission to postpone an exam or cancel a class. I swear, we have been quite successful in those and the credit obviously goes to Manish. Most of us do the planning behind the scene, but when it comes to performing the act, he would lead us through.

Manish was the only student in my class who pursued an academic career after a short stint with Titan Watches. A brilliant chap who gave his best in anything he did. I was in touch with him when he came to States for his doctorate. He had a couple of publications under his belt and I am quite sure, a few more were due. I used to make fun of him saying that he would surely be finding his academic life pretty tough for not being able to cope up with the research-pressure, but inside me I was knew that with his brilliance, he would come out with flying colors. And he did! He shifted to Lehigh for his doctorate. Coming to my personal experiences, he was always the target when I return home for holidays. I would seek his help in getting some quality sweets from Shivaji Nagar. He had that old TVS-50 (his friends use it more often than him) on which he would take me to shop around for sweets. He never refused to come with me. All he would ask in return is a glass of Badam Milk. I soon realized that he was becoming close to everyone in the whole batch. Any Video session or any trips around Bangalore, Manish would be the target. As an Organizer, he did a great job. The trips we made to Mercara, Ooty and Kemmangundi are still in our minds. It makes me laugh even now when I see those snaps taken during those trips. Manish, with his long dark-blue shorts under the waterfalls, cannot be easily forgotten.

Recalling the Sports we played at I.I.Sc, Manish was not a good athlete, but was always part of any team we formed. Who can forget those Tennis-Ball tournaments at I.I.Sc., where some of us, who were left out from the mainstream formed a Cricket team. I swear, we did not perform badly, but were repeatedly knocked out after the league matches (quite obvious). We had guys in our team, who found it difficult to complete his over after the ball failed to go to the stumps but preferred the direction of the leg-umpire. Manish was one of the striking bowler and a middle order batsman for the team. Though he didnt score many runs, it was a real fun. He was also part of the Volleyball team which we played. Though not in the first 6, he encouraged us from the bench. During a match, when he was in the bench, he had to be carried away to the Health Center after he got excited, made a jump and sprained his ankle. I later come to know that he kept telling guys (who did not watch that match) that he has sprained his ankle while trying to volley a shot. Clever chap but unfortunately could not keep it a secret for that long.

He contested for the post of Vice-President during our second year. Not that he was very keen to win but had to accept it because of the compulsion of some of the guys who also contested for different posts. These guys were obviously relying on him for their victory because Manish had a wide range of contacts in the institute. The sad part is that, each of them lost their deposit including Manish, probably because no one took him seriously when he contested. I am sure, with his leadership qualities, he would have performed very well if he had won that election.

His parents gave us the best hospitality we could ever imagine by repeatedly inviting us home. We had a good time at his place. Those delicious home-cooked food cant be easily forgotten. Its really sad that he isnt with us anymore. I just find it difficult to believe that! His memories would remain in our minds for ever.

Thinking back, I realize how I had mis-judged the guy who entered the hall (on my first day at I.I.Sc) with a freaky outfit. He turned out to be the most likable guy I have ever met.”

Sanjeev

He was one of the nicest persons I’ve ever known. – KKV

“He was one of the nicest persons I’ve ever known. Cheerful and always willing to give a helping hand at any point in time, he had this uncanny knack of winning over people with his disarming smile and pleasant demeanour. We had some of the best times together - all those trips as a big, noisy group to Mercara (jampacked in a van!), then to Kemmangundi (where we slept in some decrepit bungalow) and later to Ooty which was so impulsive as we just decided to leave one Friday night. Manish, being the localite was always forced to be the organiser - and he sure did a great job. Then ofcourse all the day-to-day activities we shared : the numerous movies, dinners at C-mess, the gossip at PD-Block reading room - the list is endless. The hospitality he used to display at his Jayanagar residence, proved a haven for all those craving for some delicious home food. Surely, his parents did not deserve this cruel blow for being the sweetest people around.” KKV