Month: July 2021

PAXgene for molecular diagnostics applications on oral pre-cancer and cancer tissues—described by IIT Kharagpur researchers for the first time in India

Recently, a scientific study has revealed the applicability of a new, non-toxic, formalin-free tissue fixation system PAXgene (QIAGEN-PreAnalytix, Germany) in studying oral pre-cancer/cancer biopsies with an aim to reduce processing damage incurred by conventional formalin-fixation and improve the quality of molecular pathology assays.

Dr. Pooja Lahiri, the Postdoctoral Fellow at School of Medical Science and Technology (SMST) and Professor Jyotirmoy Chatterjee, Head of SMST along-with senior authors, Professor Basudev Lahiri and Professor Shailendra K Varshney from Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering at IIT Kharagpur , said —

“To the best of our knowledge, we are the first research group in India to demonstrate that PAXgene tissue fixation system can be implemented on oral cancer tissues for routine histological/ histopathological staining and diverse molecular pathology assays (i.e., immunohistochemistry and spectral-histopathology) without compromising on the quality of morphological and molecular attributes.”

PAXgene tissue fixation method has also ensured the preservation of several essential bio-components (nucleic acids, lipids, and proteins) as revealed by FTIR micro-spectroscopy.

“This information will save time in the clinics/medical institutes while collecting and processing the tissues for routine histology and molecular diagnostic purposes as a change in fixative for the preservation of key bio-molecules may no longer be necessary”, mentioned by Dr. Pooja Lahiri  and Prof. Chatterjee.

As medical decision-making moves toward personalised diagnostics by obtaining a broader spectrum of information from the same tissue, PAXgene tissue fixation system will help to improve the efficiency of molecular diagnosis. In terms of health and safety, PAXgene tissue fixation can also reduce the exposure of chemical carcinogens to the laboratory personnel, thereby improving the health index.

“We are currently looking for an active collaboration with medical institutes in India to test the efficiency of this non-toxic method in tissue archiving or bio-banking for variety of tissues”, added Prof. Chatterjee.

The research findings have been published in the Biomolecules journal by MDPI publishers (https://doi.org/10.3390/biom11060889) on June 15, 2021.

This work was conceptualized by Dr. Pooja Lahiri and was primarily evolved for oral onco-pathology studies in the laboratory of Prof. Jyotirmoy Chatterjee at SMST along with contributions from lab members — Dr. Suranjana Mukherjee, DST Women Scientist and Dr. Biswajoy Ghosh, Scientific Project Officer.

The other significant senior-authors of this paper are Prof. Basudev Lahiri and Prof. Shailendra K Varshney from the Department of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering, IIT Kharagpur – who has provided their support to characterize the PAXgene system using advanced FTIR-microspectroscope.

The senior oral onco-pathologists, Prof. Emeritus Ranjan Rashmi Paul and Prof. Mousumi Pal have validated the pathological efficacy of PAXgene system on oral tissues. Prof. Paul is the Director of Research, Department of Oral and Dental Sciences, JIS University, Kolkata and Prof Pal is the HoD of Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology at the Guru Nanak Institute of Dental Sciences and Research, Kolkata.

*The PAXgene fixative was first developed by Qiagen- PreAnalytix, Germany.(https://www.qiagen.com/us/paxgene-tissue-fix-container).

** Certain excerpts for this post were taken from the original paper and reused under an open access Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license.

***Dr. Lahiri would like to acknowledge the postdoctoral funding by IIT Kharagpur for partly funding this study. All the authors would like to further acknowledge the SERB-CRG (CRG/2020/002687) funding for funding this pre-analytical study.

Media contact: Prof. Jyotirmoy Chatterjee, Head and Professor, School of Medical Science and Technology

Email:  jchatterjee@smst.iitkgp.ac.in,  Ph no.: +91-3222-282302

 

Contact: Paramita Dey, Junior Assistant

Email: media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282004

 

Shocked Indian meteorites provide clues to Earth’s inaccessible lower mantle

The team of researchers from IIT Kharagpur along with its collaborators have completed a set of complex analyses of the shocked Indian Kamargaon meteorite, sucked by Earth’s Gravity.

In a recent study, a team of researchers from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur analysed a shocked meteorite called Kamargaon, fell on November 13, 2015, near the town of Kamargaon, located 27 km away from the Golaghat district of Assam, India. The scientists classified it as a chrondite, a variety of stony meteorite.

In this study, the detailed investigations were carried out by Prof. Sujoy Ghosh and his student, Kishan Tiwari from the Department of Geology and Geophysics of IIT Kharagpur along with the collaborators, Prof. Massaki Miyahara from Hirosima University, Japan and Prof. Dwijesh Ray from Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad. The research findings were published in Geophysical Research Letters of Advancing Earth and Space Science on June 8, 2021 (https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL093592).

One of the authors this paper, Prof Sujoy Ghosh explained, “This particular kind of meteorite is found in the asteroid belt — formed by accumulation of solid particles during the formation of planets — located between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. These materials are at times pulled out from the belt due to collision and gravitational forces. These meteorites have survived high-pressure and high-temperature events during their formation and fall on Earth due to the planet’s gravitational pull”.

The Kamargaon meteorite is constituted by several rock-forming minerals, where Olivine is the most abundant. Olivine is considered as an important mineral, found in Earth’s lower mantle. It breaks down into bridgemanite and magnesiowustite in the Earth’s lower mantle which is one of the most important reactions that largely controls the physical and chemical properties of the Earth’s interior.

 This is for the time that researchers have found compositions in a meteorite, when olivine is melted at high temperature and pressures, confirming that the chemical found in the mantle is also present in the asteroid belt.

 “Further, the results suggested that the incongruent melting of olivine may possibly operate as one of the alternative mechanisms of dissociation reaction driving the phase transformation of olivine in the natural systems’, said Kishan Tewari, research scholar of IIT Kharagpur.

Media Contact: Prof Sujoy Ghosh, Assistant Professor

Email: sujoy.ghosh@gg.iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.:  +91-3222-283364

Contact: Paramita Dey, Junior Assistant

Email: media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282004

Initiation of 1st Chair Professorship in E&ECE Dept.: Benevolent act of IIT Kharagpur alumnus helps in the materialization of the process

IIT Kharagpur has established the “Prithviraj Banerjee and Swati Banerjee Chair Professorship” with an endowment of $ 81,082, received from its eminent and distinguished alumnus, Dr. Prithviraj “Prith” Banerjee (1981/B.Tech./E&ECE/Azad).

In this regards, virtual signing ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding between IIT Kharagpur and Dr Prithviraj Banerjee was arranged on July 02, 2021, where Prof Virendra Kumar Tewari, the Director of IIT Kharagpur and Dr Prith Banerjee, the Chief Technology Officer of ANSYS had signed the MoU in the presence of Prof Amit Patra, the Deputy Director; Prof Jayanta Mukhopadhyay, the Dean Outreach; Prof Surjya Kanta Pal, the Associate Dean of Office of Alumni Affairs and Branding; Prof Anandaroop Bhattacharya, Associate Dean of International Relations and Ranking and Prof Mrityunjoy Chakraborty, the Head of the Department of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering (E&ECE), IIT Kharagpur.

Thanking Dr Prith Banerjee for his avidity of giving back to his alma mater, Prof Virendra Kumar Tewari, “We are highly overwhelmed by his act of generosity. We are grateful and privileged to be blessed by all the donours for the selfless charity, which have created wonders in many ways than one. Being closely associated with Dr Banerjee in the form of this Chair, has been a great achievement for all of us. Dr Banerjee has become the first donor to institute the Chair Professorship in the Department of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering (E&ECE)”.

The Chair Professorship has been established to carry out State-of-the-art teaching, research, and industrial collaboration in the Department of E&ECE.  The aim of instituting this chair professorship is to encourage top faculty members to participate in research and industrial collaboration in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Communications Engineering.

Currently, Dr Prith Banerjee is the Chief Technology Officer at ANSYS where he is responsible for leading the evolution of ANSYS’ Technology strategy and champions the company’s next phase of innovation and growth. He also serves as the board member at Cray and CUBIC. He has also joined the Board of Directors of PanIIT USA as a Prominent Alumni. Dr. Banerjee founded AccelChip and BINACHIP in the domain of electronic design automation.

He received his B.Tech degree in Electronics and Electrical Communications Engineering in 1981 (President’s Gold Medallist), and M.S. & Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 1982 and 1984 respectively.  He spent more than 20 years in academia as a Professor, Department Chairman, and Dean at the University of Illinois and North Western University, and about 15 years in senior corporate roles as Director of HP Labs, and Chief Technology Officer of ABB, Schneider Electric and Ansys. He is the Fellow of IEEE, ACM, AAAS, and Distinguished Alumnus of IIT Kharagpur as well as University of Illinois.

Dr Banerjee said, “I would like to show my gratitude to my Alma Mater in establishing the Chair Professorship in the E&ECE Department. I am pleased to work with the department in the journey towards excellence through this small donation. I feel that I owe my academic and career success to the finest education I received at IIT Kharagpur, and to the excellent professors I had at IIT KGP, such as Prof S K Lahiri, Prof N B Chakrabarti, Prof G S Sanyal, and many others.”

At the end of the ceremony, on the behalf of the E&ECE Department, Prof Mrityunjoy Chakraborty offered sincere appreciation to Prof Banerjee for his generous contributions towards establishing a unique Chair Professorship in the name of his and his wife which would bring significant opportunities to the department towards new heights.

Media Contact: Prof Surjya Kanta Pal, Professor

Email: adeanaa@adm.iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. no.: +91-3222-282019

Contact: Paramita Dey, Junior Assistant

Email: media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282004

Pledge for Green has not gone unseen

Trees and forests play a very crucial role in maintaining an ecological balance and providing oxygen to human beings on the planet. Van Mahotsav is thus, both warning and an urge to mankind to protect forests, plant trees and avoid the future from turning into deserts. If enough trees are planted in towns and cities, definitely it can help in reducing the overall temperature.

Planting trees is recognized as one of the most engaging, environment friendly activities. In an endeavor towards maintaining the green campus as well as to spread awareness of planting more and more trees and protecting the environment, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur has celebrated Van Mahotsav on July 07, 2021.

To commemorate the occasion, the Director, the Deputy Director, the Dean Outreach, the Associate Dean Outreach and the Associate Dean of Alumni Affairs and Branding of IIT Kharagpur along with other staffs and faculty members have planted the saplings of Bakul Tree (Mimusops elengi) – for the fact that it is an evergreen and a medicinal plant as well as it provides the dense shade, at the campus and the pledge has been taken to take care of the saplings planted throughout the year.

 Speaking on the occasion, Prof Virendra Kumar Tewari, the Director of IIT Kharagpur, said, “It is our social responsibility towards our Mother Nature to improve the health of the environment. IIT Kharagpur has a lush green campus with the initiatives of all round management and development of the campus in an eco-friendly manner. People love the greenery and the atmosphere here. Every year, IIT Kharagpur community plants saplings at various designated spots within the campus, as their regular activity”.

Institutions need to ‘GO GREEN’ not only to spread awareness about the virtues of trees and greenery but also to maintain ecological balance and thrive for sustainable development. Since its foundation in 1951, IIT Kharagpur has embarked on a journey to protect the environment and spread the awareness of conserving forest through various activities. Further, since 5th June, 2021 (World Environment Day), more than 300 saplings have been planted at the campus. The campus is full of greenery including age-old trees, plants and medicinal herbs.

During a short detour around the campus, one could enlighten the mind and soothe the eyes with a stunning visual of wider varieties of trees, including Simul, Sirish, Gulmohar/ Krishnachura, Radhachura, Palash, Eucalyptus, Banyan, Jarul, Bakul, Mahogany, Mahua, Akashmoni, Amaltus, Arjun, Ashoka, Aswatha, Jarul, Kanak Champa, Banyan, Pipal, Chatim, Sal, Segun, Sajna, Rubber plant, Debdaru, and Fruit trees- Mango, Lichi, Neem, Jamun, Bael, Cashew and many more. You can get to see some rare varieties of trees in the campus, such as Nagchampa or the Cannoball tree, Jagya dumur, Bhojpatra or Bertula uitilis, Haritaki, Madras Thorn/Manila Tamarind, Karanj, Putranjiva, Bahera, Tejpata, Sisso, etc. Our campus also has some unusual trees, such as Gamhar or white teak and Sausage trees. Rudrakhsh trees and Allspice trees are two unusual trees are there at the Director’s Bunglow.

While delivering an aspiring speech, Prof Amit Patra, the Deputy Director of IIT Kharagpur mentioned the famous quote of Rabindranath Tagore, “DAO PHIRE SE ARANYA, LAO E NAGAR which means give us back the sylvan past and take away today’s cities”.

We believe that it is highly essential to increase the greenery and landscaping for all the residents in the campus and beyond, because trees greatly benefit the people living around them by having a positive impact on mental health, wellbeing, reducing stress and encouraging outdoor exercise.  Human lives exist in complete synonymity with the nature and trees could be the guide and friend that we could look for, while going towards a ‘better tomorrow’.

To create links between a healthy environment and healthy livelihoods, IIT campus dwellers have opted for organic farming and planting trees in free spaces to adhere to the outcry of growing green. Our students and staff contribute immensely to increasing the green cover. The departments have also been planting trees in the hall of residence. The staff and student are highly passionate about taking care of the campus greenery.

Contact: Paramita Dey, Junior Assistant

Email: media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282004

IIT Kharagpur unveiled the increasing ozone pollution in Antarctica

IIT Kharagpur researchers revealed significant increase of ozone pollution in the Antarctic troposphere for the past 25 years, which is a concern as the region is far from the industries and continental emission sources.

A recent scientific study analysed the significant increase of Surface Ozone and Tropospheric Ozone in Antarctica for the past 25 years. The research findings were supported by surface-based and ozonesonde measurements in Antarctica.

“The increasing trend in ozone pollution across Antarctica would have a profound impact on the future climate of one of the most climate-sensitive regions on the Earth, as tropospheric ozone has warming feedback to the Earth’s climate, and that can accelerate melting of sea-ice, changes in water masses, and damages to the ecosystem”, said Prof Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath, the lead researcher and Assistant Professor of Centre for Oceans, Rivers, Atmosphere, and Land sciences at IIT Kharagpur.

 The research findings are published in Environmental Science and Technology Journal of the American Chemical Society (https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c08491) on June 16, 2021. In this regards, American Chemical Society made the press release on the same date (https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2021/acs-presspac-june-16-2021/ozone-pollution-has-increased-in-antartica.html).

The increasing pollution in a remote region with no industries, no significant population, very limited anthropogenic activities and about 6500 km away from the equator, is a serious concern and suggests substantial anthropogenic pollution across the latitudes.  Dominant sources of ozone are both natural and from human-related sources. The researchers compiled the ozone data measured between 1992 and 2018 at ground level and through the atmosphere, from the lower atmosphere into the ozone layer, at eight stations across Antarctica.

“Making measurements and monitoring the environment at remote locations such as Antarctica is very important because of its remoteness and constant clean air there making it easier to detect even slight changes related to global scale, and thus can expose first signals of global change”, added Prof Virendra Kumar Tewari, the IIT Kharagpur Director.

 

“The increasing trend in ozone pollution is significant even after accounting for the natural variability, and we find substantial amounts of ozone pollution is being transported from neighbouring regions,” said Mr. Pankaj Kumar, the research scholar from the Centre of Oceans, Rivers, Atmosphere and Land Science of IIT Kharagpur as well as the another lead author of the paper.

The authors acknowledged the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Education (MoE), and Ministry of Earth Science (MoES) for facilitating the study. They also thanked Dr M Ravichandran, the Director of National Centre for Ocean and Polar Research Goa, India for his encouragement and support for this study.

Media Contact: Prof Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath, Assistant Professor

Email: jayan@coral.iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. no.: +91-9475472847

Contact: Paramita Dey, Junior Assistant

Email: media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282004

 

Indigenous development of PSA technology based medical grade oxygen plant

In IIT Kharagpur’s assistance, Nektor Health Science System, Ahmedabad has developed an indigenous prototype plant for generation of medical grade oxygen.

Globally, the shortage of medical oxygen has become a major challenge for treating COVID-19 patients. Considering the fact, in corroboration to IIT Kharagpur researcher, the highly experienced team of Nektor Health Science System, Ahmedabad, has developed an indigenous Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen manufacturing plant with required purity and pressure.

“One of the best methods to generate oxygen with the purity level of 93% to 96% directly from compressed air is PSA technology, where the molecular sieve selectively adsorbs the nitrogen when air is compressed and passes through one of the absorbers (PSA system consists of two adsorbers filled with Zeolite) and the oxygen gas is released from the adsorber bed as a product”, said Prof Parthasarathi Ghosh, Department of Cryogenic Engineering, IIT Kharagpur.

When the adsorber becomes saturated with nitrogen, the inlet airflow is switched to the second adsorber through the pneumatic valves. The first adsorber is regenerated by desorbing nitrogen through depressurization and purging it with some of the product oxygen. The cycle is then repeated and the pressure continually swings with the help of pneumatic controls between a higher level at adsorption (Production) and a lower level at desorption (Regeneration).

IIT Kharagpur Director, Prof Virendra Kumar Tewari congratulated the whole team and also mentioned, “Our researcher, Prof Ghosh was involved with the product development through technical advice on process design, generation of equipment specifications, procurement of equipment and materials as well as testing of the prototype. It is highly appreciated that Saving Lives, Saving Nation is the primary aim for conducting the whole product development process efficiently.”

Media Contact: Prof Parthasarathi Ghosh, Professor

Email: psghosh@cryo.iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.:  +91-3222-283594

Contact: Paramita Dey, Junior Assistant

Email: media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282004

Appointment of our new Deputy Director- Prof Amit Patra

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur welcomes its new Deputy Director, Professor Amit Patra from the Department of Electrical Engineering. Prof Patra has assumed the charge as Deputy Director from June 30, 2021.

The IIT Kharagpur Director, Prof Virendra Kumar Tewari affirmed, “As a Deputy Director, Prof Patra will provide academic and administrative leadership to the Institute in our ambition to become a pioneering institution of higher education, setting new global standard  and academic benchmarks thus revolutionizing the education landscape in the country. I am sure, he will take the institute activities to newer heights”.

Prof Amit Patra is an alumnus as well as faculty of IIT Kharagpur. He received the B.Tech., M.Tech. and Ph.D. degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 1984, 1986 and 1990 respectively. During 1992-93 and in 2000 he visited the Ruhr-University, Bochum, Germany as a Post-Doctoral Fellow of the Alexander   von   Humboldt   Foundation.   He   joined   the   Department   of   Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 1987 as a faculty member. During 2018-19, he visited the University of Maryland, Baltimore County as a Senior Visiting Research Scientist and since his return, has been serving as an Honorary Adjunct Professor. He was the Professor In-Charge, Advanced VLSI Design Lab, at IIT Kharagpur during 2004-07. Between 2007 and 2013 he served as the Dean (Alumni Affairs and International Relations) at IIT Kharagpur.

Dr. Patra received the Young Engineer Award of the Indian National Academy of Engineering in 1996 and the Young Teachers’ Career Award from the All India Council for Technical Education in 1995. He had been a Young Associate of the Indian Academy of Sciences during 1992-97. He is a member of IEEE (USA), Institution of Engineers (India) and a life member of the Systems Society of India. Dr.  Patra had been listed as one the top contributors of engineering publications in the country by a DST-conducted survey spanning the period 2002-2014. Under his mentorship a team of students received the DST-TI Innovation Award for their pioneering work on Battery Management Systems in the year 2018.

Prof Amit Patra said, “I am honoured to be chosen as the Deputy Director of IIT Kharagpur. I am glad to get this opportunity to serve my Alma Mater. I want to express my gratitude to the competent authority and the IIT community for bestowing their trust in me. I am looking forward to work with all the stakeholders to achieve the goals and aspirations of the institute.”

Contact: Paramita Dey, Junior Assistant

Email: media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282004

IIT Kharagpur has set “Specialty Friction Reducers” in motion

  • IIT Kharagpur researchers have contributed to product development and commercialization of specialty friction reducers for challenging unconventional oilfield environments.

Recently, IIT Kharagpur researchers have contributed towards a new domain of indigenous innovation, “Specialty Friction Reducers” for unconventional oilfields and most significantly, this technique has led to commercialization of this product by an Indian Manufacturer, for the first time, for the global oil and gas industry.

“We have developed the technique for characterizing the specialty friction reducers involves a unique combination of drag reduction and viscometric measurements, specifically replicating the complex oilfield environment. The work further enabled correlation between the fundamental polymeric structures of the friction reducers and its performance in challenging unconventional oilfield environments (extremely high salinity/ hardness and high shear conditions)”, said Prof Sandeep D Kulkarni, the lead researcher and the Associate Professor of Deysarkar Centre of Excellence in Petroleum Engineering, IIT Kharagpur.

The research scholar, Navneeth Kumar Korlepara along with Prof Sandeep D Kulkarni, has worked and contributed extensively on this project as well as Prof Kiran Gore, the Assistant Professor of the Department of Chemistry and his group put invaluable inputs into this project. This research work was mainly sponsored by Dr. Asoke Deysarkar, Chairman of PfP Industries, USA who is also an eminent IIT Kharagpur alumnus. The automatic flow loop built by the team for drag reduction evaluation is first of its kind in the country and it was showcased at National Conference on Upstream Petroleum Engineering 2019 held in IIT Guwahati.  Several journal publications in this domain are underway.

To ensure practical impact of the above innovation, Dr. Kulkarni had initiated synergistic product development in collaboration with the US industry professionals (sponsor) and Indian manufacturers which has led to a first container of 18 tons of the developed specialty friction reducer being readied by the Indian manufacturer, MSME, Envitech Chemical Specialties Pvt. Ltd., for shipment to the US oil and gas industry.

 Congratulating the whole team, the IIT Kharagpur Director, Prof Virendra Kumar Tewari added, “Potentially, this Make-in-India exercise based on above indigenous innovation is expected to scale up, in the long run. The researchers need to work hard and make it a reality particularly for the MSME sectors to get benefited”. 

 Dr. Deysarkar said, “R & D efforts at IITs should ensure tangible value addition for the society and the country. Such innovations would strengthen Make-in-India and could make India Inc. part of global supply chain for a range of specialty products”.

Media Contact: Prof Sandeep D Kulkarni, Associate Professor

Email: sandeep.kulkarni@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. no.: +91-3222-284882

Contact: Paramita Dey, Junior Assistant

Email: media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282004

Dr B C Roy- A pioneer of Medical Science, who remodeled the perception on Doctors

God is busy, cannot be present everywhere, that’s why they have created doctors. Rightly said by Carl Jung- “Medicines cure diseases, but only doctors cure patients.

In recognition of service rendered by the medical doctors, July 1 is celebrated as National Doctors’ Day all across India, to honour the legendary Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy on his birth and death anniversary.

This day is very important to pay tribute to the doctors, who are selflessly and tirelessly protecting us. To acknowledge and salute them for their contributions towards serving the nation, IIT Kharagpur has celebrated National Doctors’ Day at the Bidhan Chowk (Academic Complex) of the Institute. The standbeeld of Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy has been adorned with garlands and flowers. The Director, Prof Virendra Kumar Tewari; the Deputy Director, Prof Amit Patra as well as the Registrar, Deans, Faculty members and Staff members  have paid tribute and homage to Dr B C Roy, an eminent physician, educationist, philanthropist, freedom fighter and politician.  He was the second Chief Minister of West Bengal. He remained in this post for 14 years. He was also the first Chairman, Board of Governors of IIT Kharagpur.

We all are highly grateful to the doctors, one of the frontline warriors, for fighting a long war against COVID -19 pandemic and sacrificing their own lives to save our life.

Contact: Paramita Dey, Junior Assistant

Email: media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282004