Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, a leading Canadian financial company founded by IIT Madras alumnus Prem Watsa, will support the research activities of IIT Madras' Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre with a $5 million (₹41 crore) grant.
Watsa, who graduated from IIT Madras in 1971 with a first-class degree in chemical engineering, received the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1999.
The Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre, launched in March 2022, aims to image the human brain at the cellular level, generating unprecedented data, scientific output, and technology tools.
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Commending the centre's work, Watsa, Fairfax's founder, chairman, and CEO, said the team's commitment and the unique high-resolution brain imaging platform they've developed will advance understanding of the human brain and lead to solutions for challenging neurological diseases.
Watsa added that Fairfax is pleased to support this cutting-edge R&D, which involves close global collaboration.
The centre has created a world-class pipeline to process whole human brains into high-resolution digital images at petabyte-scale. These first-of-their-kind datasets are being studied by leading neuroscientists worldwide.
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Infosys co-founder and IIT Madras alumnus Kris Gopalakrishnan, who played a key role in establishing the centre, commended Watsa's contribution, which will enable the centre to scale up its brain atlas research.
The donation was facilitated by the Canadian Friends of IIT-Madras, a Canadian charity promoting cooperation between Canada and IIT Madras. The group's directors expressed delight that the gift will further Indo-Canadian collaboration.
IIT Madras Dean of Alumni and Corporate Relations Mahesh Panchagnula and Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre Head Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam both thanked Watsa for the generous support, which will be critical in establishing the centre as a global R&D leader.
