Deans of Faculties

Dean, Faculty of Engineering
Prof. Jayant Modak
Email: dean.engg@iisc.ac.in
Contact: +91 80 2293 2044, 2956

Jayant Modak received his BChem (Engg) in 1983 from UDCT (now ICT), Mumbai, and MS in 1985 and PhD in 1988 from Purdue University, both in Chemical Engineering. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, Irvine, before joining IISc in 1989 where he is currently Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering. His research interests are in the area of biological engineering with emphasis on modelling, optimisation and control of fermentation processes, and advanced oxidation technologies for wastewater treatment. He has served the Institute as Chief Executive, Society for Innovation and Development (2012-2015); Chair, Intellectual Property Cell (2012-15) and Deputy Director (2015-2020). He has served as an Independent Director on the Board of Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Limited. He is an elected Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad. He is a recipient of the PC Ray and Amar Dye Chem award of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers, the CV Raman award from Karnataka State, and Biotech Process Development Award from the Department of Biotechnology, India.

Dean, Faculty of Science
Prof. S. Asokan
Email: dean.sci@iisc.ac.in
Contact:91–80– 2293 2033, 2271

S. Asokan received the Ph.D. degree in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India, in the year 1987. He is currently a Professor at the Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics.
He was a JSPS Visiting Scientist at the Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering, Gifu University, Japan (1991), INSA-Royal Society Visiting Scientist at the Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, U.K. (1998) and a Visiting Scholar at the Lyman Laboratory, Harvard University, USA (1999).
He was the recipient of The Martin J. Forster Gold Medal from the Indian Institute of Science for the Best Ph.D. thesis in the Division of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (1986–1987), the Young Scientist Award of the Indian National Science Academy (1990), and the Young Scientist Research Award of the Department of Atomic Energy (1995). He was awarded the IISc Alumni Award of excellence in research in engineering for the year 2018. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India.

Dean, Undergraduate Program
Prof. Prabal K. Maiti
Email: dean.ug@iisc.ac.in
Contact: 91-80-2293 3554/2825/3184

Prabal K. Maiti is a Professor in the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He served as chair of the Physics department and Center for Cryogenic Technology (CCT) from 2018-2023. Prof Maiti received his M.Sc and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from IIT, Kanpur, India followed by postdoctoral stays at MPIP, Mainz, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Caltech, USA. He is a fellow of Indian Academy of Science (IASc), Indian National Science Academy (INSA) and the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). Currently, he is an associate editor of PCCP published by Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). His other awards/honors include Alexander Humboldt fellowship and Fulbright fellowship. He works in the area of Multiscale Modelling of Soft and Bio-materials. Current research interests are in the area of confined fluid, nucleic acid nanotechnology, charge transport in biomolecules, HIV inhibition, membrane biophysics and physics for sustainability.

Associate Dean, Undergraduate Program (B.S)
Prof. Dipshikha Chakravortty
Email: ascdean.ugacad@iisc.ac.in
Contact: 91- 80 – 2293 3554 / 2892

Dipshikha Chakravortty is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Until 2022, she was the Astra Chair Professor at the Institute. She is a Humboldt fellow and did her research work at FAU, Erlangen, Germany. She did her Master’s in Microbiology from Nagpur University and PhD from the National Center of Cell Science, Pune. Her research focuses on infectious diseases and vaccine development. Her work has been published in top biological journals, including Journal of Experimental Medicine, EMBO J, Journal of Immunology, Infection and Immunity, J Clim Microbiology, AAC, and J Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

She has won many awards such as the DAE Outstanding Investigator Award, National Bioscience Award, NASI-Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee award, and more. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India; the Indian National Science Academy, Delhi and the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore. She is involved in the editorial board of many journals like Virulence, Innate Immunity, Journal of Bioscience, Frontiers in Microbiology, and so on. She serves as a reviewer for reputed journals such as the Lancet, Nature Communications, and MMBR, to name a few. Her research has been supported by grants from the Department of Science and Technology, India; Department of Biotechnology, India; Indian Council of Medical Research, and Department of Atomic Energy.

She has more than 175 papers in international journals, and has guided 24 students so far towards their PhD. More than 200 summers trainees and 60 Academy summer trainees have worked in her lab. Most of her PhD students are faculty members in reputed institutions like IISc, BITS Pilani and NIT. She was the Chair of Wardens from 2019 to 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also served as the Chair of ICASH from 2015-2021, and as the Integrated PhD coordinator till August 2023. She serves as a member of scientific advisory committees in institutes of national importance, and is part of various committees in DST, DBT and ICMR involved in decision making. She is a passionate teacher and teaches students across diverse disciplines including UG, PhD and Int PhD students. Her vision is to instill the knowledge of microbiology in every individual towards understanding the importance of microbes in health and life.

Associate Dean, Undergraduate Program (B.Tech)
Prof. Srikanth Krishnan Iyer
Email: skiyer@iisc.ac.in
Contact: 080-22933327

Srikanth Iyer received his M.Sc. (5yr Integrated) degree in Statistics from IIT-Kanpur in 1990 and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1994. He had a year and half stint as a post doc at the Technion and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He joined the faculty of IIT-Kanpur in 1996 and subsequently moved to IISc in 2004. His research interests include stochastic geometry, mathematical finance, and branching processes.