Nobel laureate to attend VIT-AP convocation

The event will be held virtually due to the pandemic situation

Nobel laureate M. Stanley Whittingham will be the chief guest at the VIT-AP convocation-2021, scheduled for September 23 (Thursday).

Vice-Chancellor of the University S.V. Kota said at a press conference on Tuesday that the British-born American chemist, who won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in developing lithium ion batteries and shared the prize with American chemist John Goodenough and Japanese chemist Yoshino Akira, will participate in the event in virtual mode.

Director of Microsoft India Mayurika Singh would be the guest of honour. “The convocation is being held virtually due to the pandemic situation in the country,” said Dr. Kota Reddy.

He said 90% of the 460 students graduating from the university this year had secured placements and the remaining did not opt for placements as they either had plans to pursue higher education, take over family businesses or wanted to turn entrepreneurs.

The Vice-Chancellor said that to reach out to senior students who had lost their sole earning family member, COVID-19 scholarships were introduced to waive the tuition and hostel fee and 30 students had benefited by this. This was in addition to introduction of merit scholarships for students who had secured more than 80% marks in non-Engineering programmes such as BBA, B.Com Finance, BA LLB (Hons), BBA LLB (Hons). BA-MA (Public Service). B.Sc-M.Sc (Data Science), M.Sc (Physics) and M.Sc (Chemistry), he informed.

Dr. Kota Reddy said Mr. Whittingham would also virtually inaugurate four new buildings, the Mahatma Gandhi academic block, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy block for boys’ hostel, Savitrhibai Phule block for girls’ hostel and Rock Plaza, a place for extra-curricular activities for students.

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