Kharagpur, Aug 23 (Express News Service): Nearly 53 years after the first PhD of IIT-Kharagpur was awarded to Mani Bhowmick, the noted physicist Monday donated $150 million to his alma mater for setting up a world-class research centre in Kolkata.
The payback comes on the day IIT-Kharagpur — where Bhowmick’s father was jailed when the premises was called Hijli Detention camp — kickstarted diamond jubilee celebrations to celebrate completion of 60 years.

“Had people like my father not participated in the freedom struggle, the country would not have been free and the IITs would not have been set up and I would not have been what I am today,” Bhowmick said on the sidelines of the programme.

The research centre would aim at producing Nobel laureates in the area of Bio Informatics and Energy Science. “The total cost of the project is $300 million. While our alumni Mani Bhowmick will donate half the money, the rest will be generated by the institute. The PhDs would be awarded by IIT-Kharagpur,” said IIT’s director Damodar Acharya.

The research centre, for which the physicist has also donated 15 acres of land, would be called Dr Mani Bhowmick Centre for Advance Research of IIT-Kharagpur, Acharya said. “The centre will take about three years to come up.”

“Kolkata has produced four Nobel Laureates and it is my dream to see this centre produce at least three more and bring glory to the city,” said Bhowmick.