IIT Kanpur alumnus commits $1.15 million for new Chemical Engineering facility | Education News
2 min readNew DelhiJun 10, 2026 06:38 PM IST
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur will establish a new Chemical Engineering Annex following a donation commitment of $1.15 million from alumnus Jagjeet Singh Bindra.
According to IIT Kanpur, the upcoming facility will be named the Janice and Jagjeet Bindra Chemical Engineering Annex and will support teaching, research and innovation activities within the Department of Chemical Engineering.
The proposed building will span approximately 4,000 square metres and is expected to house laboratories, classrooms, faculty offices and collaborative research spaces. The institute in a statement said the facility will help expand academic and research activities in areas such as sustainable technologies, biotechnology, advanced materials and computational research.
According to the institute, the annex is also expected to strengthen industry-academia collaboration and support interdisciplinary projects involving faculty, researchers and students.
The contribution adds to Bindra’s long association with IIT Kanpur. Over the years, he has supported several initiatives at the institute, including research laboratories, infrastructure projects, faculty support programmes and student-focused initiatives. The institute stated that the new facility will be formally named in recognition of the contribution.
Bindra graduated from IIT Kanpur’s Department of Chemical Engineering in 1969 and has held leadership roles across the global chemicals, engineering and industrial sectors. According to the institute, his support has contributed to multiple academic and research initiatives over the past three decades.
IIT Kanpur said the new annex is expected to enhance the department’s capacity for research and training while creating additional infrastructure for future academic and industry partnerships. The Department of Chemical Engineering is among the institute’s oldest academic departments and has been involved in research across energy, process engineering, materials and related fields.
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Established in 1959, IIT Kanpur is one of India’s oldest engineering institutes and offers programmes across engineering, sciences, humanities and management disciplines.