IIT-Madras alumnus Prem Watsa donates USD 5 Million for research activities
Prem Watsa, Founder of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited said, "The technology platform they have developed that generates high-resolution image volumes of human brains is very unique."
IIT Madras
CHENNAI: Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, a leading Canadian financial company founded by IIT-Madras alumnus Prem Watsa, is going to support the research activities of IIT Madras' Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre through a research grant of US$ 5 million (approximately INR 41 crore).
Commending the research, Prem Watsa, Founder of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited said, "The technology platform they have developed that generates high-resolution image volumes of human brains is very unique."
"To handle this enormous complexity, they are working in close collaboration with brain researchers in various fields around the world. Fairfax is pleased to support this cutting-edge R&D work and we wish them the very best to reach greater heights, " he added.
The IIT-M Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre has developed a world-class high-throughput histology pipeline that processes whole human brains into high-resolution digital images at petabyte-scale.
These unique first-in-class data sets of human brains of different types and ages provide an unprecedented high-resolution view of human brains that reveal cellular level details across the entire brain.
This data is being studied by globally leading neuroscience experts for new knowledge and discovery.
Further, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-founder of Infosys and distinguished alumnus of IIT-M said, "I compliment Prem Watsa on his contribution to the Brain Centre at IIT-M. 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."
The donation was facilitated by the Canadian Friends of IIT-Madras (CFIITM), a Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) registered charity that seeks to advance the cause of IIT-Madras among its Canadian alumni and Canadian society at large.
V Prem Watsa, who graduated from IIT-Madras in 1971 with a first class degree in Chemical Engineering, was presented with the distinguished alumnus award in 1999.
The Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre was launched in March 2022 to power an ambitious global project to image the human brain at the cellular levels by generating unprecedented human brain data, scientific output and technology tools.