Auhona Roy Chowdhury, Pune
IIT Madras alumni, Dr. Preeti Aghalayam, gets appointed as the director-in-charge of IIT Madras’ Zanzibar campus, where the first academic session is set to begin later this year. This makes her the first female campus director at an IIT. Dr. Aghalayam began working at IIT Madras in 2010 and is now a professor in the School of chemical engineering. IIT Madras’ Zanzibar campus will be the first IIT branch abroad.
Dr. Aghalayam graduated from IIT Madras in 1991 with a BTech in Chemical Engineering. She attended the University of Rochester in New York to pursue an MS in Chemical Engineering post her BTech. She attended the University of Massachusetts for her Ph.D. in 1996. She has held positions as faculty at IIT Bombay and postdoctoral researcher at MIT, Cambridge. The Principal Scientific Advisor’s office has recognised Dr. Aghalaya as one of the 75 Women in STEM.
“I am an alumnus of IIT Madras and doing something of this magnitude for the institute and for the country is such a big honor. Every time we visited Zanzibar as part of the IIT Madras contingent, we noticed that the representation of women on their side is quite significant. So, it was important that we do this mindfully,” said Aghalayam.
Preeti is also a marathon runner and a blogger. She has written numerous articles alongside other professors on topics that include estimating the impacts of inlet manifold design on diesel oxidation catalytic converter performance and the effects of urea injection non-uniformities on SCR performance using CFD.
The Zanzibar branch has been planned as a unique and groundbreaking educational partnership between India and Zanzibar-Tanzania. The master plan for this campus, which will cover 200 acres on Zanzibar Island, has been designed by experts from IIT Madras. Classes are set to begin in October 2023 and the admissions process has already begun for the first academic year of 2023–24. During the early stages of this institution, faculty will be hired from India or deputed from IIT Madras.