M S Mathews took charge as the director of Alpha College of Engineering, Chennai, recently. He was formerly Professor and ex-Head of the Civil Engineering Department, IIT Madras and an eminent visiting fellow, DEWSC, Arizona, USA.
With nearly 50 years of association with IIT Madras as student and faculty, Mathews was recently awarded the prestigious Vishwakarma award for his yeoman service in civil engineering.
Mathews has his BTech, MTech and PhD from IIT Madras and a Housing Diploma from Bouwcentrum, Rotterdam, Holland. With several national and international papers to his credit, he has guided many M Tech, M S and Ph D students. Widely travelled, He has lectured in Germany, Netherlands, Italy, UK and US. He has held important positions including Chief Examiner for GATE and Selection Committee member for CLRI, Anna University and others.
Along with him Rakesh Nigam took charge as Professor and Advisor-Research & Development Cell of Alpha College. He was earlier associated with Stanford University. Rakesh Nigam is well known for the famous Nigam’s Formula in solar oscillations. With a BTech and M Tech in Chemical Engineering from IIT, Nigam has an M S in Computer Science from Pennsylvania, an M S in Mechanical Engineering and Ph D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University. He has held research positions in Florida and Pennsylvania as well.