The Engineer as Lord and Master

Thirty years ago, universities and institutes teaching engineering in the United Kingdom were exactly like the engineering institutions in India today. Kumar Bhattacharya, or to call him by his title, Professor Lord Bhattacharya puts it well when he says there were like ‘medical schools without patients.’ That is the students of engineering were ‘assessed by the papers they published, rather than by the application of engineering in the market place.’ In 1980, Lord Bhattacharya took it upon himself to change that. To that effect he started the now world famous Warwick Manufacturing Group which trains post-graduate students in the real world, at various campuses in Warwick, China, India, Singapore and many other places. Born in British-India, Lord Bhattacharya went to the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and has an MSc in Engineering Production and Management, and a PhD in Engineering Production from the University of Birmingham. Credited with single-handedly raising the profile of engineering and manufacturing in the UK, he is a member of the Royal Academy of Engineers, and was a member of the UK Council for Science and Technology. He is the recipient of the Mensforth International Gold Medal by the Institution of Electrical Engineers which recognises outstanding international contribution to manufacturing engineering and management. He was appointed a CBE in 1997, and was Knighted in 2003. In 2004, he was made a life peer and is consequently a member of the House of Lords. He was also awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2002.  —