Making history, the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur has appointed Prof. Rintu Banerjee as its first female Deputy Director. With a distinguished career in bioenergy and sustainable technology, Prof. Banerjee marks a historic milestone as the first woman to hold this position at IIT Kharagpur, the first IIT in the country. Prof. Banerjee currently serves as the Founder Head and Chairperson of the P K Sinha Centre for Bioenergy and Renewables.

She has also led the Centre for Rural Development, Innovative and Sustainable Technology, and the Department of Agricultural & Food Engineering at IIT Kharagpur for three years. Her extensive portfolio includes roles such as Chairperson of the Centre of Excellence in Precision Agriculture & Food Nutrition, Nodal Coordinator for Australia and New Zealand for SPARC, and Coordinator for RuTAG. An alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, Prof. Banerjee completed her PhD in Microbial Biotechnology from the Chemical Engineering Department. Throughout her career, she has fostered industry-academia collaborative research, resulting in several technology transfers and numerous national and international patents. Recently, her groundbreaking 1G & 2G Ethanol technology was successfully commercialized. Prof. Banerjee’s scholarly contributions include two books on environmental biotechnology and OMICSbased approaches in plant biotechnology.

She has managed numerous government, private, and industry-sponsored projects, supported by agencies such as TBT, DST, ICAR, UAI, ICMR, IMPRINT, SPARC, and SERB, alongside various multinational companies. Her academic journey has taken her to countries like Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Finland, Egypt, Australia, the US, Taiwan, Japan, the UK, South Korea, Laos, Thailand, Dubai, Doha, Brazil, Canada, and Malaysia. She has earned several accolades in her distinguished career, including the Panjabrao Deshmukh Award for Outstanding Women Scientist from ICAR, Best Woman Bioscientist from the Biotech Research Society of India, the Young Scientist Award from the Association for Food Scientists and Technologists (India), the Dr. Prem Dureja Endowment, and the Institute Chair Professor from IIT Kharagpur. Other honors include the Louis Pasteur Award, Madan Mohan Malviya Award, and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award.

In 2014, she was recognized as the Most Inspiring Women Engineer/Scientist by Engineering Watch, New Delhi, and has over 12,000 citations to her name. Commenting on her new role, Prof. Rintu Banerjee said: “It is my utmost privilege and honour to be the Deputy Director of IIT Kharagpur. Previously as the Dean of Research & Development, I aimed to develop opportunities for innovation and sustainable inventions with affordable technology. As the Deputy Director of the largest IIT in the country, my intent is to fast-track the economic progress of the country through innovative solutions provided by IIT Kharagpur, alongside uplifting the Institute’s ranking both nationally and internationally. With Industry 4.0 and digitronics advancing automation of traditional industrial practices, the institution should boost its performance indicators to suit best in industry collaborations and engage in developing strong policy mission programs with the government, sensitizing people to ‘Make in India & Make for the World’.”