Prem Watsa contributes USD 5 million for brain research at IIT Madras

CHENNAI: Prem Watsa, the founder and chairman of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd, has contributed USD 5 million (about Rs 41 crore) to his alma mater Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, here for taking up brain research.

Watsa, is one of the 150 alumni to be designated as 'Distinguished Alumnus' by the premier research institute in 1999.

IIT Madras, in March 2022, launched the Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre at its sprawling campus to take up images of the human brain at the cellular levels by generating data, scientific output and technology tools.

"The quality of work and the team's commitment at IIT Madras Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre is truly outstanding. The technology platform they have developed that generates high resolution image volumes of the human brain is very unique," Watsa, also the Chief Executive Officer of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd said.

"Fairfax is pleased to support this cutting-edge research and development work and we wish them the very best to reach greater heights," he said in a press release here on Tuesday.

Infosys Co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan also a 'Distinguished Alumnus', who played a key role in establishing the Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre, said, "I compliment Prem Watsa on his contribution to the Brain Centre at IIT Madras. This augments the support the centre is already receiving from various philanthropic and CSR funds and enables the centre to scale up its research on human brain atlas."

IIT Madras Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre Head and professor Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam said, "this generous support from Prem Watsa will play a critical role in scaling up our work towards becoming a globally leading research and development centre."

In May 2017, Prem Watsa inaugurated a stadium that was named after his father 'Manohar C Watsa' equipped with a state-of-the-art synthetic track at the campus of IIT Madras.