Indore: Indian Institute of Technology Indore, which has been inviting iconic figures from the country for motivational address during passing out ceremonies, will see a foreigner delivering convocation address for the first time, on November 16.
Professor Jeffrey S Kargel from USA is going to be chief guest of the 7th convocation of IIT Indore.
He is a geologist, glaciologist, and planetary scientist. Kargel has worked at the US Geological Survey for 13 years, University of Arizona for 14 years, and since 2018 he is with Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, USA.
In 2015, he had led an international research consortium, coordinated by NASA, to undertake emergency response to the earthquake in Nepal which measured 7.8 in the Richter scale
“We invited Kargel for our convocation and he immediately accepted our request,” said a senior officer of IIT Indore.
The then president Pranab Mukherjee was chief guest of first convocation in 2013 followed by Bharat Ratna Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in 2014.
Padma Vibhushan Raghunath Anant Mashelkar and the then DST secretary Ashutosh Sharma graced IIT Indore convocation in 2015 and 2016 respectively, and the then ISRO chief AS Kiran Kumar and eminent Mathematician Prof Madabusi Santanam Raghunathan graced ceremonies in 2017 and 2018.
Though there is no such rule, IITs and IIMs generally invite eminent personalities from the country and not abroad for motivating the graduating students
