Read Online Indian Innovators by Akshat Agrawal - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Akshat Agrawal
Tags: Indian Innovators
Ads: Link
has been his pillar of strength. Born in Almora (Uttaranchal), Nitin was brought up in Haldwani, where he was always among the school toppers. Unfortunately for him, he could not clear the IIT-JEE and in 2002, landed up at the Kumaon Engineering College in Dwarhat, Almora.
“Since my ranking was not good enough to get me the much desired Computer Engineering course, I settled for Biochemical Engineering. I told myself that with a good standing in the first year, I would be able to switch to Computer Science the next year.”
Over the next two semesters, he discovered that his passion for Computer Engineering was more “bhed-chaal (herd mentality) than anything else, and that he was genuinely interested in Biochemical Engineering. Despite topping his class that year, he decided not to opt for the shift to Computer Science. Who would have known then that Computer Science’s loss would eventually prove to be Biochemical Engineering’s gain!
“At the end of my four-year engineering degree, I was awarded the Chancellor’s Gold Medal by the university. I also secured AIR-31 at the competitive GATE exam (the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering is an entrance examination for admission into science and technology postgraduate programs in IITs and other Indian institutions and universities).”
Despite an outstanding academic record, Nitin did not apply to universities abroad, because getting a scholarship for a master’s program there would have been tough. Besides, his mother wanted him to be in India, as she would be all alone otherwise.
“I got an admission call from both IIT Kharagpur and IIT Bombay. I chose the latter, because I thought it was better to be in a big city. But unfortunately, I did not manage to get a scholarship at IIT Bombay.
I still went ahead with the decision. I thought I might manage to get the scholarship eventually, if a couple of people chose to drop out of the program.”
Fortunately for Nitin, two people dropped out by the time the session started and he obtained full scholarship for his MTech at the Biomedical Engineering Department.
“Biomedical engineering is very different from biochemical engineering that I had studied till that point of time. Biomedical engineering is more about human physiology, of which I had no idea when I started.
For my thesis, I chose to work with Prof Rinti Banerjee, who has a reputation for the quality of research pursued at her lab.” She has an MBBS and a PhD degree in biomedical engineering, and was a fellow at the Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California in San Francisco before joining IIT-B.
The credit for my initial pedagogy in physiology goes to Prof Banerjee, who has been a very able guide. I did not have any research experience before joining IIT, but gradually developed a knack for it. The research facilities at IIT were top notch and Prof Banerjee motivated me. Though I topped the MTech program with a CGPA of 9.8/10.0, my real joy was working independently at the lab.”
After completing the MTech program, Nitin had a few tentative offers from top universities in the US, including MIT, for their PhD program. However, he was very comfortable with the academic atmosphere at IIT and the infrastructure at his lab matched the best in the world. Eventually, he decided to continue work on his PhD at IIT-B, under the guidance of the same professor.
“During the MTech program, I had worked on engineering inhalable nanoparticles capable of delivering a single anti-cancer drug, an innovation for which I obtained a patent in 2008. In the PhD program, I continued my work on non-invasive, targeted anti-cancer drug delivery. I extended the scope to engineer nanoparticles capable of delivering two different drugs and allowing for controlled release.”
Nitin summarizes the status of current research in engineering nanoparticles for non-invasive anti-cancer drug delivery via the respiratory
“Since my ranking was not good enough to get me the much desired Computer Engineering course, I settled for Biochemical Engineering. I told myself that with a good standing in the first year, I would be able to switch to Computer Science the next year.”
Over the next two semesters, he discovered that his passion for Computer Engineering was more “bhed-chaal (herd mentality) than anything else, and that he was genuinely interested in Biochemical Engineering. Despite topping his class that year, he decided not to opt for the shift to Computer Science. Who would have known then that Computer Science’s loss would eventually prove to be Biochemical Engineering’s gain!
“At the end of my four-year engineering degree, I was awarded the Chancellor’s Gold Medal by the university. I also secured AIR-31 at the competitive GATE exam (the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering is an entrance examination for admission into science and technology postgraduate programs in IITs and other Indian institutions and universities).”
Despite an outstanding academic record, Nitin did not apply to universities abroad, because getting a scholarship for a master’s program there would have been tough. Besides, his mother wanted him to be in India, as she would be all alone otherwise.
“I got an admission call from both IIT Kharagpur and IIT Bombay. I chose the latter, because I thought it was better to be in a big city. But unfortunately, I did not manage to get a scholarship at IIT Bombay.
I still went ahead with the decision. I thought I might manage to get the scholarship eventually, if a couple of people chose to drop out of the program.”
Fortunately for Nitin, two people dropped out by the time the session started and he obtained full scholarship for his MTech at the Biomedical Engineering Department.
“Biomedical engineering is very different from biochemical engineering that I had studied till that point of time. Biomedical engineering is more about human physiology, of which I had no idea when I started.
For my thesis, I chose to work with Prof Rinti Banerjee, who has a reputation for the quality of research pursued at her lab.” She has an MBBS and a PhD degree in biomedical engineering, and was a fellow at the Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California in San Francisco before joining IIT-B.
The credit for my initial pedagogy in physiology goes to Prof Banerjee, who has been a very able guide. I did not have any research experience before joining IIT, but gradually developed a knack for it. The research facilities at IIT were top notch and Prof Banerjee motivated me. Though I topped the MTech program with a CGPA of 9.8/10.0, my real joy was working independently at the lab.”
After completing the MTech program, Nitin had a few tentative offers from top universities in the US, including MIT, for their PhD program. However, he was very comfortable with the academic atmosphere at IIT and the infrastructure at his lab matched the best in the world. Eventually, he decided to continue work on his PhD at IIT-B, under the guidance of the same professor.
“During the MTech program, I had worked on engineering inhalable nanoparticles capable of delivering a single anti-cancer drug, an innovation for which I obtained a patent in 2008. In the PhD program, I continued my work on non-invasive, targeted anti-cancer drug delivery. I extended the scope to engineer nanoparticles capable of delivering two different drugs and allowing for controlled release.”
Nitin summarizes the status of current research in engineering nanoparticles for non-invasive anti-cancer drug delivery via the respiratory
Similar Books
