Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala is an Institute Professor* at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.
He conceived India’s first university affiliated business park (IIT Madras Research Park) to promote Industry-Academia R&D collaboration. TIE conferred him the title of Dronacharya for his contributions to the cause of entrepreneurship, as he incubated and nurtured more than 180 companies at IIT Madras. He heads the IITM Incubation Cell and Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI). He leads TeNeT group, which has worked closely with industry to create innovative affordable products in sectors like telecom, banking, energy and electric vehicles.
Dr. Jhunjhunwala has been Chairman and member of various government committees and has been on boards of several education institutions and
public and private companies in the country.
Dr. Jhunjhunwala was conferred Padmashri, Shanti-Swarup Bhatnagar Award, Vikram Sarabhai Research Award, H. K. Firodia Award, Silicon India Leadership Award, Millenium Medal at Indian Science Congress, UGC Hari Om Ashram Award, IETE’s Ram Lala Wadhwa Gold Medal, JC Bose fellowship, Bernard Low Humanitarian Award, Dronacharya and Lifetime Achievement Award by TIE, Chennai among many others. He is fellow of IEEE, INSA, NAS, IAS, INAE and WWRF and a member of National Academy of Engineering (NAE), USA. He has also been conferred honorary doctorate by University of Maine and Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden.
*Institute Professor is the highest title a professor can earn in an institute/university.