Meet Prof. Rintu Banerjee, 1st Woman Deputy Director At IIT Kharagpur

The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, set a precedent by appointing Professor Rintu Banerjee as its first female deputy director. Banerjee boasts a marvellous bioenergy and sustainable technology career and currently serves as the Founder Head and Chairperson of the P K Sinha Centre for Bioenergy and Renewables. Her achievement as the first woman to head the first IIT of India has made history for women in academia and STEM.

Who Is Prof. Rintu Banerjee?

Professor Rintu Banerjee, the newly appointed Deputy Director of IIT Kharagpur, has decades of experience in the sustainable energy production industry. She has led the Centre for Rural Development, Innovative and Sustainable Technology, and the Department of Agricultural & Food Engineering at IIT Kharagpur for three years.

Moreover, Banerjee has helmed distinguished roles such as Chairperson of the Centre of Excellence in Precision Agriculture & Food Nutrition, Nodal Coordinator for Australia and New Zealand for SPARC (Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration), and Coordinator for Rural Technology Action Group (RuTAG).

Banerjee is also an alumnus of the prestigious institute and completed her PhD in Microbial Biotechnology from the Chemical Engineering Department. She has fostered industry-academia collaborative research across her career, resulting in several technology transfers and numerous national and international patents. 

Banerjee's most recent achievement is a groundbreaking 1G & 2G Ethanol technology which was successfully commercialized. Her research contributions include two books on environmental biotechnology and omics-based approaches in plant biotechnology. She has managed numerous government, private, and industry-sponsored projects.

Prof. Banerjee has also worked and collaborated with many internationally acclaimed companies. Her academic journey has taken her to countries like Germany, France, Italy, the US, Japan, the UK, South Korea, Thailand, and many more, where she has showcased her scientific expertise to a wide audience. 

She has also won many awards for her extraordinary work in STEM, including the Panjabrao Deshmukh Award for Outstanding Women Scientist from The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the Dr Prem Dureja Endowment, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award, and the Louis Pasteur Award among others.

In 2014, Prof Banerjee was recognized as one of the Most Inspiring Women Engineers/Scientists by Engineering Watch, New Delhi. She reportedly has over 12,000 citations in her name. She told The Statesman, “...I intend to fast-track the economic progress of the country through innovative solutions provided by IIT Kharagpur..."

She further said, "With Industry 4.0 and digitronics advancing automation of traditional industrial practices, the institution should boost its performance indicators to suit best in industry collaborations and engage in developing strong policy mission programs with the government, sensitizing people to ‘Make in India & Make for the World’.”