BITS-Pilani alumni pay homage to late prof with memorial award

New Delhi, Sep 5 (PTI) As a tribute to their lateprofessor, some of the members of the BITS-Pilani alumni havejoined hands with the alma mater to institute an award in hismemory for teaching excellence. Announcing the award on Teacher’s Day today, the collegesaid its purpose is to remember Prof S S Ranganathan and toencourage the teaching community. Ranganathan, who died last year, had joined BITS-Pilaniin 1978 and served as a faculty in the Department ofElectrical and Electronics Engineering till 1987, a seniorofficial of the college said. "He was an epitome of teaching excellence whodemonstrated an outstanding commitment and contribution to hisstudents and colleagues. Alumni members still recall hisinvigorating lectures," he said. The ‘Prof SSR Memorial Teaching Excellence Award’includes Rs one lakh in cash, a plaque and a citation. "Few alumni members under the umbrella of ‘Proud to beBITSians’, including some eminent ones, wanted to celebratehis legacy and approached BITS-Pilani and later an MoU wassigned. "Well-known academic S Seshasayee and co-founder andpresident of Bangalore-based Mindtree N S Parthasarathy, tookup the mission with alumni across various batches for workingout the initial corpus amount of Rs 25 lakh for the award toget going," the official said. Born in Tamil Nadu in 1940, SSR, as he was fondly called,received a bachelor’s degree in engineering and an MSc inengineering from Coimbatore Institute of Technology. Heinitially served at this institute from 1961-1977, he said. "Even though he endured his fight against a killerdisease 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 thusleft an unparallelled legacy," BITS-Pilani said. Ranganathan rejoined BITS-Pilani in 1994 and served theetill his retirement in 2000. "The first SSR memorial award will be given from nextyear onwards. Members of the teaching staff from any of theIndian campuses of BITS-Pilani who have been full-time facultyfor a minimum of six semesters or three years would beeligible for it. BITS-Pilani, besides its main campus in Vidya Vihar areain Pilani in Rajasthan has centres in Goa, Hyderabad andDubai. "The selection criteria will be decided by a jointcommittee constituted by the Vice Chancellor which willinclude key alumni representatives as well," he added. PTI KNDAAR DVAAR