IIT Madras alumnus donates ₹41 crore for research at the institute
V. Prem Watsa graduated from the institute in 1971
An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras has offered a grant of US$5 million for brain research.
Fairfax Financial Holdings, a Canadian company founded by V. Prem Watsa, who graduated from the institute in 1971 in chemical engineering, has donated the money (approximately ₹41 crore) to the institute’s Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre. The centre has developed a high-throughput histology pipeline that processes whole human brains into high-resolution digital image volumes. Mr. Watsa was presented the distinguished alumnus award in 1999.
The brain centre was launched in 2022 with the aim of imaging the human brain at the cellular levels by generating unprecedented human brain data, scientific output and technology tools.
Mr. Watsa termed the quality of work and the brain centre’s team as outstanding. The institution’s work would not only advance our knowledge of human brains but also develop insights that would lead to solutions for highly challenging brain diseases, he said. “They (researchers) are working in close collaboration with brain researchers in various fields around the world. Fairfax is pleased to support this cutting-edge research and development work,” Mr. Watsa said.
Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys and a distinguished alumnus of the institute, complimented Mr. Watsa adding that the centre was receiving aid from various philanthropic and CSR funds to enable it scale up its research on human brain atlas.
The Canadian friends of IIT Madras facilitated the donation.
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