IIT graduates and their success stories are not very uncommon. Few of the biggest companies in the world are currently being led by IIT graduates that have an inspiring story. Only a few lucky IIT alumni get a chance to etch their names in history and one of them was able to do it last year. The IIT graduate that we are talking about is Dr Preeti Aghalayam, the first woman to serve as campus director at an IIT. IIT Madras recently opened its offshore campus in Zanzibar, Tanzania with 35 undergraduate and 15 postgraduate students. IIT graduate Dr Preeti Aghalayam is the Director-in-charge of Zanzibar campus. Before getting her name registered in history, Preeti Aghalayam was working as a professor at IIT Madras.
Preeti Aghalayam graduated from IIT Madras with a BTech in chemical engineering in 1991. After her graduation, she moved to the US to pursue an MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Rochester in New York. Aghalayam went to the University of Massachusetts for her Ph.D. in 1996 after receiving her MS. She has also held positions as a faculty at IIT Bombay and a postdoctoral researcher at MIT, Cambridge.
Preeti is also a marathon runner and a blogger. She has written numerous articles alongside other professors on topics including 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. Dr Aghalaya has also received recognition from the Principal Scientific Advisor's office as one of the 75 Women in STEM.
