Donation from technologist and IIT (BHU) graduate Dr. Raj Yavatkar (‘80 ECE) made to the IITBHU Foundation will fund the Student Academic Center at the Institute
Varanasi: The IIT (BHU) Foundation, a U.S.-based all volunteer, non-profit association of IIT (BHU) alumni, announced that Dr. Raj Yavatkar, IIT(BHU) graduate and CTO of Mountain View, California based Juniper Networks, has donated the IIT (BHU) Foundation with a US $1.6 million donation. The donation will be used to build the Student Academic Center at the Institute in Varanasi, providing a transformational growth eco-system for the students on campus.
“IIT (BHU) not only got me started on an excellent engineering path but the experience was truly transformative for someone who arrived on the campus at a young age. The institute helped me to grow in many areas such as leadership, communication, and risk-taking.” said Dr. Raj Yavatkar. He further continued, “I am excited to support building the Student Academic Center which will help students pursue innovative R&D projects while also offering opportunities to showcase their cultural talents and build a strong community focused on collaboration.”
Dr. Raj Yavatkar graduated with B. Tech in Electronics Engineering from IIT-BHU, followed by a M.Tech in Computer Science at IIT Bombay, and a PhD in Computer Science from Purdue University. He is a IEEE fellow and is recognized as a leading expert in the networking industry and holds more than 50 patents. Raj has co-authored five Internet standards. Dr. Yavatkar has also published more than 40 papers in academic journals and conferences and has co-authored the book, Inside the Internet’s Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) published by John Wiley. Currently, Raj is the Chief Technology Officer at Juniper Networks, a leading vendor for networking systems and services. At Juniper, Raj leads the corporate strategy and technology innovation to put the company on a growth path with expansion in Enterprise, data center, and mobile network segments. Raj also serves as an advisor to and is an early investor in many startups.
Sri Sagar Bhimavarapu (ECE ‘88), CEO of the IIT (BHU) Foundation, noted that Dr. Yavatkar is a proud example of what IIT (BHU) alums have accomplished. “We are grateful to Mr. Raj for supporting our efforts to help the IIT (BHU) community, and we look forward to working with other alums to help grow the Foundation’s mission” Sagar said. He further expressed his gratitude for this generous donation that supports creating a robust environment for global donations and endowment for the truly remarkable Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University.
Director of IIT (BHU), Prof. Pramod Kumar Jain and the Board of Governors also expressed their gratitude for this generous donation. Prof. Jain said, “This makes possible a state of the art Student Academic Center providing our students with the best amenities and will go a long way in molding technology leaders of tomorrow.”
The donation has been made through The IIT (BHU) Foundation, a 501(c) 3 registered non-profit working with alumni globally to support sustainable giving to the Institute. Visit https://iitbhufoundation.org for more details about the Foundation and our generous benefactors.
Dr. Raj Yavatkar graduated from Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University) in 1980 with a B. Tech degree in Electronics Engineering. He went on to get his M.Tech from IIT Bombay and then a Ph. D in Computer Sciences from Purdue University. He started his career in academic research before moving to an industry research position at Intel Corp where he created a completely new product category in the networking industry called programmable network processor and invented active manageability technology (branded as Intel vPro) for Intel-based client and server systems. Sri Raj was appointed Intel Fellow, one of the highest technical positions at Intel, in 2003. At VMware, as a Sr VP and Fellow, Raj invented a new direction for hybrid clouds and then developed VMware Cloud Foundation – a new hybrid cloud automation platform that integrated compute, storage, and network virtualization with automated life cycle management delivering over $1B+ annual software revenue. At Google, he led the Cloud networking team to deliver a network virtualization platform and new networking products to differentiate from other public clouds.Currently, Dr. Raj is the Chief Technology Officer at Juniper Networks, a leading vendor for networking systems and services. At Juniper, He leads the corporate strategy and technology innovation to put the company on a growth path with expansion in Enterprise, data center, and mobile network segments. He also serves as an advisor to and is an early investor in many startups.
About the IIT (BHU) Foundation
The US based all volunteer, 501 (c) 3 non-profit Foundation strives to enable the transformation of IIT (BHU) into a trendsetting pioneer over the next 100 years, synchronizing the goals of the institute with the generosity of our alumni and donor network by means of their kind contributions. With an intent to raise, allocate and manage capital flow, the Foundation works in close and constant coordination with IIT (BHU) and IIT (BHU) Global Alumni Association.
