Engineer’s Day 2024: Aditya Vikram Birla, Nadir Burjorji Godrej and more — Check list of Indians who graduated from MIT

According to MIT South Asia Alumni’s Association, Keshav Bhat is claimed to be South Asia’s first student to arrive at MIT in 1880. Here are some more renowned Indian personalities who went to the world’s top engineering college.

Anant Pandya

Gujarat-based Anant Pandya is claimed to be the state’s first student from MIT. Being a civil engineering graduate, Pandya received a doctorate from MIT. He won several scholarships as his academics were unparalleled. He also achieved gold medals in engineering degree apart from the coveted James Berkely Gold medal. At MIT, he also achieved an Austin Research Fellowship where he researched soil mechanics.

(Image from Indian National Science Academy)

He worked in various places like in Daigrid Structures as a chief engineer, which made him achieve the James F Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation International Prize. He also took a British patent on continuous cranked beam construction, as claimed by a document on Anant Pandya in the Indian National Science Academy.

Uma Chowdhry

Born and brought in a Bombay-based business family, Uma Chowdhry is claimed to be India’s first woman who went to MIT to achieve a doctoral degree in material science engineering. After gaining two years of work experience in the engineering industry, she went to MIT as a PhD candidate.

(Image credit: Science History Institute)

She completed her graduation from Mumbai while for her masters degree she went to California Institute of Technology. She also worked as a chief science and technology officer in DuPont company.

Aditya Vikram Birla

Industrialist Aditya Vikram Birla attended MIT to receive a degree in chemical engineering. Apart from an engineer, he was also a Sanskrit scholar and took his teaching from the late scholar Durga Prasad Shastri in Kolkata. The grandson of GD Birla gave his business empire international prominence with the setting up of Indo Thai Synthetics in Thailand.

(Image: Aditya Birla Group)

Nadir Burjorji Godrej

Industrialist and a chemical engineer, Nadir Burjorji Godrej is the chairperson of the Godrej Agrovet. With interest in studies, Nadir went on to get admitted in Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, but after a year he left the Institute and shifted to MIT. In the US, he completed his bachelor’s in chemical engineering and did his masters from Stanford University followed by an MBA from Harvard University.

(Image: Godrej)

Apart from being an engineer, he also served as the non-executive director at Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata group’s Indian Hotels.

Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran

At present, Vijay Vaitheeswaran is an innovation editor of The Economist, a weekly newspaper based in London.He completed his mechanical engineering degree from MIT and then shifted to another field. During his education at MIT, he was also named as the Harry S. Truman Presidential Scholar by the US Congress.

(Image: LinkedIn)

But after working as an intern in The Economist, he shifted his field and since then has written various books, and articles.

Vaidyeswaran Rajaraman

Padma Bhushan awardee Vaidyeswaran Rajaraman was studying at Delhi University after he cracked the All India Entrance Scholarship Examination. He did his graduation in Physics from DU’s St Stephen College and continued his higher education at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (IISc). At IISc, he received a diploma in electrical communication engineering.

(Image: IISc)

His knowledge and calibre granted him an overseas scholarship by the Indian government to join MIT from where he obtained his master’s degree in electrical engineering.

After completing his masters, he got himself enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for his doctoral studies and did his research on adaptive control systems and obtained a PhD degree.

Apart from Padma Bhushan, he is also an awardee of highest award in the science and technology category that Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Prize. He is now an honorary professor at IISc and spends his time writing books and articles.