Prof. Navakanta Bhat
M. Tech., 1992, Electrical Engineering

Prof. Navakanta Bhat is the Dean of the Division of Interdisciplinary Science and Professor in the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore. He obtained his M. Tech. And Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay and the Stanford University in 1992 and 1996 respectively.

Prof. Bhat worked as a Senior Device Engineer at Motorola’s Networking and Computing Systems Group under Advanced Products R&D Lab (APRDL) in Austin, TX until 1999. At Motorola, he worked on logic technology development and was responsible for developing high performance transistor design and dual gate oxide technology for PowerPC microprocessors. Prof. Bhat joined the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore in 1999, as an Assistant Professor in the ECE department. Through highly interdisciplinary collaboration with other colleagues, he was responsible for a major initiative at IISc in Nanoelectronics, which eventually led to the creation of Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE) at IISc. Prof. Bhat was instrumental in creating the National Nanofabrication Centre (NNfC), benchmarked against the best university facilities in the world. In 2010, he moved from ECE to CeNSE as one of the founding faculty and became the Chair of the department in 2016. From 2020 Prof. Bhat has been the Dean of Division of Interdisciplinary Sciences at IISc. During 2015-16, Prof. Bhat was on sabbatical leave from IISc, to co-found a start-up, PathShodh Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., and served as the CEO of the company. At PathShodh, Prof Bhat continues as non-executive Chair of Board of Governors.

Prof. Bhat was instrumental in creating the National Nanofabrication Centre (NNfC) at IISc, Bangalore. He led the Indian Nano Users Program which trained more than 4,000 researchers from across the country. His contributions to the field of his work include:

• Developed metal oxide gas sensors for hazardous gas leakage detection and transferred technology to SCL, Department of Space for use by SHAR in their satellite launch facilit

• Developed nanoferrites for high frequency (GHz) inductors in RF CMOS applications, and transferred technology to SCL, Department of Space

• Invented first-of-its-kind multi-analyte device, Lab on Palm, for point of care diagnosis of multiple chronic diseases including diabetes, anemia and malnutrition, kidney and lever disease. Successfully deployed the product in the field, by founding a start-up PathShodh Healthcare Pvt Ltd.

• Led the creation of educational content for the benefit of electron devices professionals worldwide, in the capacity as the Vice President for IEEE Electron Devices Society

Prof. Bhat is a Fellow of Indian National Science Academy, Delhi (2021); National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad (2021); IEEE (2018); Indian National Academy of Engineering (2011); Swarnajayanti Fellowship (2005). He is a recipient of Infosys Prize for Engineering and Computer Science (2018); BIRAC Innovator award (2018); NASI-Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee award (2018); Nina Saxena Technology Excellence award (2018); Dr. Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation National Fellowship (2018-2021); Prof. Rustum Choksi award for Excellence in Research in Engineering, IISc(2017). He is the recipient of several awards including the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Industrial Innovation Award, for the most promising start-up and CII Grand Jury Award for Innovation (2017); Best start-up of the year award from Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Healthcare Excellence award (2017); Outstanding Research Investigator award, DAE Govt. of India (2010); IBM Faculty award (2007); Prof. Satish Dhavan award (2005) Govt. of Karnataka; and Young Engineer Award (2003) from the Indian National Academy of Engineering. Prof. Bhat is associated with IEEE in various capacities such as Vice President, IEEE Electron Devices Society (2019-present); Chair, IEEE Electron Devices Society Technical Committee on Nanotechnology (2017-present); Chief Guest Editor for IEEE TED Special Issue on “2D Materials for Electronic, Optoelectronic and Sensor Devices” slated for publication in October 2018; Member, IEEE EDS Board of Governors (2016-present); Editor , IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, under MOS Devices and Technology (Jan 2013- Jan 2016) and Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Electron Devices Society. In addition he is also the Chair, Vision Group on Nanotechnology, Govt. of Karnataka (2021- Present).

Special Memories

Great educational and research ambience with inspiring Professors; Working in the clean room of Microelectronics lab, with experiments routinely running very late in the night ; Intellectually stimulating discussions with friends in the hostel (H-5); Weekend movies in the convocation hall; Nescafe and Maggi noodles in the shop near EE department; During the monsoon, maneuvering of bicycle ride from hostel to department and back, with one hand holding the umbrella.