Preeti Aghalayam's journey from an IIT Madras student to the head of an IIT campus is a story of education, research and years of work in academics. Aghalayam studied Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and completed her BTech in 1995. She later went to the United States for higher studies and earned a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Rhode Island.
After completing her studies, she began her academic career and joined IIT Bombay as a faculty member. She later returned to IIT Madras, where she continued her teaching and research work in chemical engineering.
A new chapter at IIT Madras Zanzibar
A major milestone came in 2023, when Aghalayam was appointed Director-in-Charge of IIT Madras Zanzibar in Tanzania.
IIT Madras Zanzibar is the first international campus of IIT Madras. Her appointment put her at the centre of efforts to establish the new campus and develop its academic and administrative structure.
The campus started offering undergraduate programmes, including courses in Chemical Engineering and Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.
From student to academic leader
Aghalayam's career has taken her from the classrooms of IIT Madras to teaching, research and academic leadership. Her journey also stands out because she returned to her alma mater as a faculty member before taking on a leadership role at its first international campus.
Her career reflects how an engineering education can open opportunities across teaching, research and academic administration.
For students, her journey offers a simple lesson: an IIT degree does not have to mark the end of the learning journey. For Aghalayam, it became the beginning of a career that eventually took her from being an IIT Madras student to helping build an IIT campus outside India.
