BITS Pilani alumni pay homage on Teachers Day to late prof SS Ranganathan with memorial award

A teacher affects eternity and one can never tell where the influence stops. Prof SS Ranganathan (1940 – 2015) popularly known as SSR who taught at BITS Pilani was an epitome of teaching excellence who demonstrated an outstanding commitment and contribution to his students and colleagues. Prof SSR was faculty at BITS Pilani campus as well as Chennai off campus for 15 years.

Even though he endured his fight against a killer disease for several years, he always stood for strength, dignity, courage and hope and served the cause of students, guiding them, being part of their joys, struggles and being a great example of living a life for others, thus leaving an unparalleled legacy for all those who are interested in learning and living life to the fullest. With the dual intention of remembering Prof. SSR as well as encouraging the teaching community, a group of alumni have joined hands with BITS Pilani to institute an award called as “Prof. SSR Memorial Teaching Excellence Award”.

This award which will be announced on Teachers Day every year aims to honor one member of the teaching staff from any of the Indian campuses of BITS who has been full time teaching for a minimum of six semesters. The selection criteria will be decided by a joint committee constituted by the Vice Chancellor BITS which will include key alumni representatives also. The award includes Rs. One Lakh in cash, a plaque and a Citation.

The Memorandum of Understanding giving the details of the award was signed by Prof Souvik Bhattacharyya Vice Chancellor and a group of alumni of BITS Pilani represented by Proud to be BITSians and well known Chennai academic Prof S Seshasayee and NS Parthasarathy, Co-Founder, President & COO of Mindtree Limited, Bengaluru. This would not have been possible but for the whole hearted support of VC Prof Souvik Bhattacharyya as well as Prof AK Sarkar Director BITS Pilani. Seshasayee and NS Parthasarathy took up the mission with alumni across various batches for working out the initial corpus amount of Rs 25 Lakhs for the award to get going.

The family members of Prof SSR conveyed that the gesture of the alumni indeed touched them deeply and said that Prof SSR considered each and every student as his own family member.

Notable other alumni initiatives for BITS Pilani include Guru Dakshina program by 70-75 batch to honour former faculty members, Kris Ramachandran Faculty Excellence award, Prof Venkateswaran Faculty Excellence award by Karthik Krishna, Atma Nirbara multi crore Pilani Resource Centre by 75-80 batch alumni and many more.

Such initiatives of giving back by the Alumni to its alma mater, demonstrates once again the reason why BITS, Pilani continues to be amongst one among the top ranking institutions in India today.

Though recent in origin, BITS Alumni Association (BITSAA) has emerged as one of the strongest alumni networks of any university. BITSAA International engages in charitable and educational activities by raising funds for setting up endowments, creating scholarships, rewarding teaching and research and generally promoting the development of resources at Birla Institute of Technology and Science at Pilani, Dubai, Goa & Hyderabad campuses. BITSAA International also aims to strengthen the ties, friendship and communication amongst former students, alumni faculty and friends of the Institute. BITSAA International provides a number of channels for people to stay connected with each other and with Birla Institute of Technology & Science.

Prof BR Natarajan
BITS Pilani Alumni
Pilani Rajasthan India 333031
Phone: 919799476406
Email: brnatarajan@bitsaa.org
Website: http://www.bitsaa.org/

This release was published on openPR.