Obituary 1975

Lakshman-Rao-1LAXMAN RAO (LUX) – 1975 ARCH
Passed away 1998 Age 45

Lakshman Rao was fondly known to all as LUX.  Lux had a great sense of humor and made us laugh five years of our KGP life. Lux started his career with an architect firm in Bombay in  1976 and late that year, he emigrated to the Middle East.

He came back and set up his own studio in Hyderabad. Probal Mukherjee and Dipak Barma (Lux’s wingmates 1970-75) remember him by recalling these two incidents:
“His puns were just superb. Not paying his mess bill on time, he had met the registrar in his dream and when the registrar had asked him how is life, Lux had replied ‘Fine, fine.’ To that the Registrar had said, ‘Excused.’

When we had gone to call Prof. Joshi (the contract bridge coach) at his quarter, his wife had come out and said that the Prof. had come back at two-‘o’-clock the last night. The others had fumbled but Lux stood his ground saying, “And you know Madam, till then he was trying to finesse the queen of hearts on the wrong side.”

When he was working in Bombay, I was in BARC and we used to meet Saturday afternoons at his office in Malabar hills before going for a flick in town. Once a Mohun Bagan supporter in Calcutta, had committed suicide as his team lost badly to East Bengal.
The conversation that Sat afternoon in his office was on Cal football and, being a native, I was also asked to comment.
Before that, Lux said, if you ever go to see soccer match in Cal you won’t find a single spectator in the stadium. The listeners looked at him in surprise and Lux explained, “They are all supporters!”

Jamshed-Mirza-1JAMSHED MIRZA – 1975 COMM
Passed away February 2, 2004   Age 52

M.S., Ph.D., Polytechnic Institute of New York, 1980

Jamshed H Mirza, Ph.D., an IBM Distinguished Engineer and was the chief Systems Architect of Deep Computing Unit of IBM. He was responsible for defining the strategy, technical direction, and architecture for IBM’s Deep Computing solutions that span not only traditional scientific and technical computing but also other compute and data intensive areas in business and industry.Prior to this he was the architect of various HPC systems offerings from IBM including the very successful SP systems and the e1350.

For many years, he was the Systems Architect for IBM’s RISC System/6000 SP (IBM’s supercomputer product). He has many patents and inventions while at IBM. Dr. Mirza pictured the vibrant research agenda including Blue Gene, Grid computing, eLiza, ultra-dense power-efficient servers, federated storage and databases, advanced hardware technology, advanced SW research, advanced algorithms, and pure science research. Dr. Mirza also mentioned some important Grid wins for IBM including DTF, Das-2, eScience@Oxford, DOE Science Grid, BioGrid, and the National Digital Mammgraphy Archive.

Jamshed Mirza died of metastatic lungcanceron February 2, 2004 at age 52. Jamshed is survived by two chidlren and Wife – Dilnavaz.

aftab-patla2-1

AFTAB PATLA – 1975 EE              Passed away January 29, 2007 Age 54

Dr. Patla earned a B. Tech in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (1975), a M.Sc. Eng. in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Brunswick (1978) and a Ph.D. in Kinesiology from Simon Fraser University (1982). He was a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Waterloo. During his academic career, he served as Associate Editor of the journal Gait & Posture, Executive Editor of the Journal of Motor Behaviour, President of the Canadian Society of Biomechanics, President of the International Society of Posture and Gait Research and on the Grant Selection Committees of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Medical Research Council.   Dr. Aftab Patla passed away on January 29, 2007, 8 months after being diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor. Aftab Patla’s passion for, and creativity in, research and life will live on through the many students he mentored (22 M.Sc., 25 Ph.D. and 4 postdoctoral fellows), his honored colleagues, cherished wife Guilda, family and friends.

Anil Singh1-1

ANIL SINGH – 1975 COMM           Passed away June 30, 2008 Age 55  

Anil Singh came to the United States and joined Rolla University, Missouri for his Masters degree. Upon completion of his degree in Missouri, Anil went on to pursue his Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from Kansas State University. While pursuing his Ph.D, he went back to India in 1979 to get married to Ranjana. Right after marriage, both Anil and Ranjana  came to the US where he continued to work on his Ph.D  and Ranjana joined K.S.U. to pursue an MS in Nutrition. Almost nearing completion of his degree, Anil got a job offer from Rockwell International and moved to Orange County (Los Angeles), California in 1981. In 1987, Anil decided to move to Silicon Valley and join Silverisco in a management position. After working at Loral and a few other startup companies, he decided to work as an independent consultant. Anil Singh passed away of stomach cancer on June 30th, 2008 in Kothari Hospital in Calcutta, India. Anil is survived by his wife Ranjana and son Suneet and daughter Kalee   Anil had a great mind and even throughout his illness he helped out his children in math and physics. Anil always had a word of encouragement for everybody, always praising the best in people, and refusing to see the bad. Anil always preached the value of hard work to his children, telling them stories about how he got through his Masters washing dishes in the school cafeteria at 2AM. Anil also enjoyed traveling and as a family, we had the opportunity to travel within the US and in India. He also enjoyed good food, his favorite items ranging from Biryani and GajarkaHalwa to a Wendy’s Spicy Chicken Sandwich and a Blue Moon loving person and though he is no longer with us, he will always remain an important part of our lives.

Kartic-Khilar-1

KARTIK C KHILAR– 1975 CHEM   Passed away November 13 2009 Age 56

M.S, Drexel University, 1977 Ph.D., University of Michigan , Ann Arbor,1981

Kartic joined IIT Bombay in 1982 after earning a PhD from the University of Michigan. He had an MS degree from Drexel University and a B-Tech degree from IIT Kharagpur. He had a distinguished career at IIT Bombay doing world class research, most of which can be seen in his publications, relating to flows in porous media, colloids and interfaces and nanotechnology. Even more importantly he inspired a culture of research in a whole army of young faculty members who joined the Institute after him. His entry in the Chemical Engineering department marks the beginning of a new era in which a modern, research-based work culture developed in the department. Professor Kartic Chandra Khilar passed away in Gandhinagar during the early morning hours of November 13, 2009, ostensibly due to a massive heart attack resulting in sudden cardiac arrest. He had joined the PanditDeendayal Petroleum University (PDPU) Gandhinagar, as its Director General from Oct 1, 2009 after taking voluntary retirement from the department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Bombay. He was only 57 years young.Kartic is survived by two sons and Wife – Jaya. He was also a fantastic teacher, much involved in the teaching of core fluid mechanics courses and a whole array of electives on reservoir engineering, interfacial science and transport in porous media. He earned heaps of praise from the students he taught.

 

Tapas Gupta (75 CHE) passed away Aug 28, 2020 of Covid Complications.

One thought on “Obituary 1975”

  1. Lux’s death had come to me as a shock when Uttam Banarjee (Arch. 1976 and a Prof in Kgp) had told me when I had come to Kgp for my first son’s admission.
    I had met and dined with Kartick Khillar just few months before his death when I had met him formally at his office in IIT Bombay for a project my company was conducting there. His death again came to me as a shock when I came to know about it from Suhobroto Roy (popularly known as John), a batch-mate and Prof in Chemical Engineering when I had come to Kgp for my second son’s admission.

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