KOCHI: P B Sunil Kumar, director, Indian Institute of Technology, Palakkad, has been selected for Prof M V Pylee Award for the distinguished academician of India in 2019 by the Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat). The biennial award which carries a cash prize of `1 lakh and a citation is 10th in the series which commenced in 1996. The award was instituted in honour of M V Pylee, a management expert and former vice-chancellor of the university.
The award committee made the selection from three candidates who were shortlisted out of 17 by 23 academicians and eminent personalities. After completing degree and post-graduation from Calicut University, Sunil Kumar took his PhD from Raman Research Institute (Bangalore) in the year 1994. Thereafter, he continued research as a Post-doctoral fellow in Raman Research Institute, Institute of Mathematical Sciences (Chennai) and Max Planck Institute (Teltow, Germany) till 1999 and has been a professor since 2006.
In addition to being a member of various academic bodies, Sunil Kumar has been a successful teacher and researcher with 15 students having already taken Ph D under his guidance. Electrodynamics, statistical physics, classical mechanics, simple and computational physics were some of the courses he handled. He has held many teaching and administrative positions in various IITs.