41 Notable alumni of
University of Kerala
Updated:
The University of Kerala is 1159th in the world, 251st in Asia, and 28th in India by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 41 notable alumni from the University of Kerala sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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K. R. Narayanan
- Occupations
- politiciandiplomat
- Biography
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Kocheril Raman Narayanan listen was an Indian statesman, diplomat, academic, and politician who served as the ninth vice president of India from 1992 to 1997 and tenth president of India from 1997 to 2002.
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M. S. Swaminathan
- Enrolled in the University of Kerala
- Graduated with Bachelor of Science
- Occupations
- administratorgeneticistpoliticianagronomist
- Biography
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Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan was an Indian agronomist, agricultural scientist, plant geneticist, administrator, and humanitarian. Swaminathan was a global leader of the green revolution. He has been called the main architect of the green revolution in India for his leadership and role in introducing and further developing high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice. Swaminathan's collaborative scientific efforts with Norman Borlaug, spearheading a mass movement with farmers and other scientists and backed by public policies, saved India and Pakistan from certain famine-like conditions in the 1960s. His leadership as director general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines was instrumental in his being awarded the first World Food Prize in 1987, recognized as one of the highest honours in the field of agriculture. The United Nations Environment Programme has called him "the Father of Economic Ecology". He was recently conferred the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of the Republic of India, in 2024.
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Ottaplakkal Neelakandan Velu Kurup
- Occupations
- translatorwriterpoetplaywrightsongwriter
- Biography
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Ottaplakkal Neelakandan Velu Kurup was a Malayalam poet and lyricist from Kerala, India, who won the Jnanpith Award, the highest literary award in India for the year 2007. He received the awards Padma Shri in 1998 and Padma Vibhushan in 2011, the fourth and second highest civilian honours from the Government of India. In 2007 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by University of Kerala, Trivandrum. O. N. V. was known for his leftist leaning. He was a leader of All India Students Federation (AISF). He died on 13 February 2016 at KIMS hospital in Thiruvananthapuram due to age-related illnesses, aged 84.
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G. Madhavan Nair
- Occupations
- aerospace engineerengineer
- Biography
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G. Madhavan Nair is an Indian space scientist and a former Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, and Secretary to the Department of Space, Government of India. He has also been the Chairman of the Space Commission and Chairman of the Governing Body of the Antrix Corporation, Bangalore.
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Veena George
- Occupations
- politicianjournalist
- Biography
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Veena George is an Indian politician and former journalist who currently serves as the Minister for Health and Woman and Child Development in the Government of Kerala. She represents Aranmula Assembly constituency in the Kerala Legislative Assembly since 2016. A member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Veena worked with major Malayalam news channels for over 16 years prior to joining politics. She was also the first female executive editor among Regional Malayalam news channels.
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Ramesh Chennithala
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Ramesh Chennithala, [ɾɐmeːʃ t͡ʃen̺ːit̪ːɐlɐ],, is an Indian politician, and Working Committee Member of the Indian National Congress. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the 14th Kerala Legislative Assembly. He also served as the state Home Minister in the Government of Kerala for two years. He holds the record of the youngest minister in Kerala at the age of 28.
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Ayyappa Paniker
- Occupations
- writerliterary criticpoettranslatorlinguist
- Biography
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Dr. K. Ayyappa Paniker, sometimes spelt "Ayyappa Panicker", was a Malayalam poet, literary critic, and an academic and a scholar in modern and post-modern literary theories as well as ancient Indian aesthetics and literary traditions. He was one of the pioneers of modernism in Malayalam poetry, where his seminal works like Kurukshethram (1960), is considered a turning point in Malayalam poetry. Many of Ayyappa Paniker's poems and his several essays were an important influence on later generations of Malayalam writers.
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S. D. Shibulal
- Occupations
- international forum participantcomputer scientist
- Biography
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S. D. Shibulal, better known as Shibulal, is an Indian business executive. He was the chief executive officer and managing director of Infosys, and one of its seven founding members. He stepped down from the post of CEO and MD on 31 July 2014 and was succeeded by the first non-founder CEO of Infosys Dr. Vishal Sikka. He is the president of the Infosys Science Foundation for the year 2015.
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K. T. Jaleel
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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K. T. Jaleel is an Indian politician from Kerala and a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Thavanur and has served as Minister of Higher Education, Welfare of Minorities, Waqf and Hajj in the Left Democratic Front (LDF) -led ministry. He was first elected to Kerala Legislative Assembly in 2006. He was an Associate Professor of History at P. S. M. O. College, Tirurangadi. He previously served as Minister of Local Administration, Government of Kerala.
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Kurian Joseph
- Occupations
- judgelawyer
- Biography
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Kurian Joseph is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India. Previously, he has served as chief justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court and judge of the Kerala High Court.
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Sanal Edamaruku
- Occupations
- journalistwriterpublisher
- Biography
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Sanal Edamaruku is an Indian author and rationalist. He is the founder-president and editor of Rationalist International, the president of the Indian Rationalist Association and the author of 25 books and other articles. In 2012, after examining an alleged miracle at a local church in Mumbai, he was charged under India's blasphemy law, causing him to voluntarily exile to Finland.
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Thanu Padmanabhan
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicistastronomer
- Biography
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Thanu Padmanabhan was an Indian theoretical physicist and cosmologist whose research spanned a wide variety of topics in gravitation, structure formation in the universe and quantum gravity. He published nearly 300 papers and reviews in international journals and ten books in these areas. He made several contributions related to the analysis and modelling of dark energy in the universe and the interpretation of gravity as an emergent phenomenon. He was a Distinguished Professor at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) at Pune, India.
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V. Madhusoodhanan Nair
- Occupations
- writeracademicpoet
- Biography
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V. Madhusoodanan Nair is an Indian poet and critic of Malayalam literature, who is credited with contributions in popularizing poetry through recitation. He is best known for Naranathu Bhranthan, the poem with the most editions in Malayalam literature as well as his music albums featuring recitations of his own poems and poems of other major poets. Kerala Sahitya Akademi honoured him with their annual award for poetry in 1993. He is also a recipient many other honours including Sahitya Akademi Award, Asan Smaraka Kavitha Puraskaram, Padmaprabha Literary Award, Kunju Pillai Award, R. G. Mangalom Award, Souparnikatheeram Prathibhapuraskaram and Janmashtami Puraskaram.
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Jose Chacko Periappuram
- Occupations
- surgeon
- Biography
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Jose Chacko Periappuram is an Indian cardiac surgeon and medical writer who performed the first successful heart transplant in the state of Kerala, India, as well as the first successful heart retransplant in the country. His other achievements include the first beating heart, awake bypass and total arterial revascularization surgeries in the state. Periappuram is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Surgeons of Glasgow and the Royal College of Surgeons of London. He is the founder and chairman of "Heart Care Foundation", a charitable trust that financially assists poor heart patients. The Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, in 2011.
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Aaryan Krishna Menon
- Occupations
- actor
- Biography
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Aaryan Krishna Menon is an Indian actor, screenwriter, and director, primarily working in the Malayalam film industry.
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P. F. Mathews
- Occupations
- screenwriter
- Biography
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Poovankery Francis Mathews is an Indian author of Malayalam literature and a screenplay writer in Malayalam film and Television industries. A Winner of a National Film Award for Best Screenplay and multiple State television and other literary awards including the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Novel and Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Story, he is known for his original style of writing. Literary works such as Muzhakkam, Kadalinte Manam, Adiyalapretham, Iruttil Oru Punyalan, and Chaavunilam and screenplays such as Sararaanthal, Mikhayelinte Santhathikal, Megham, Kutty Srank and Ee.Ma.Yau are his major works.
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G. Sankara Pillai
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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Gopala Pillai Sankara Pillai, better known as G. Sankara Pillai, was an Indian playwright, literary critic, and director, known to be one of the pioneers of modern Malayalam theatre. A proponent of total theater, he was the founder of Nataka Kalari movement in Kerala and the chairman of the Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Akademi. He was a recipient of a number of awards including the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Drama in 1964 for the work Rail Palangal (Railway track) and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for the best playwright in 1979.
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Tiffany Brar
- Occupations
- activistacademic
- Biography
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Tiffany Brar is an Indian community service worker who became blind as an infant due to oxygen toxicity. Brar is the founder of the Jyothirgamaya Foundation, a non-profit organization that teaches life skills to blind people of all ages. She is a trainer, a campaigner for disability awareness and an advocates for an inclusive society.
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M. S. Valiathan
- Occupations
- surgeoncardiac surgeon
- Biography
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Marthanda Varma Sankaran Valiathan is an Indian cardiac surgeon. He is a former President of the Indian National Science Academy and National Research Professor of the Government of India.
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Shobhana George
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Sobhana George is a politician and three-time Member of the Legislative Assembly of the state of Kerala, who, as an Indian National Congress candidate, represented Chengannur in the 9th, 10th and 11th Assemblies. She is the only woman to represent the same constituency consecutively for three years in the Indian National Congress Party.
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M. G. S. Narayanan
- Occupations
- historian
- Biography
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Muttayil Govindamenon Sankara Narayanan, commonly known as M. G. S. Narayanan is an Indian historian, academic and political commentator. He headed the Department of History at Calicut University (Kerala) from 1976 to 1990. and served as the Chairman (2001–03) of the Indian Council of Historical Research.
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Sunny Joseph
- Occupations
- film directorcinematographer
- Biography
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Sunny Joseph is an Indian cinematographer and director from Kerala, most known for his work in Shaji N. Karun classic, Piravi, for which he won the 1988 Kerala State Film Award for Best Photography and Caméra d'Or — Mention Spéciale at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. He has Post Graduate Diploma in Cinematography from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. He is a former Chairman and General Secretary of Indian Society of Cinematographers, (ISC).
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T N Seema
- Years
- 1963-.. (age 61)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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T. N. Seema ഡോ. ടി.എൻ സീമ is an Indian social worker, teacher, and politician who was an MP from Rajya Sabha elected from Kerala from 2010 to 2016 for the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
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Neela Padmanabhan
- Occupations
- authorlinguisttranslator
- Biography
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Neela Padmanabhan, is a Tamil writer from Nagercoil, India. He also writes in Malayalam.
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Sathyabhama Das Biju
- Occupations
- environmentalistconservationistbotanistherpetologist
- Biography
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Sathyabhama Das Biju is an Indian amphibian biologist, wildlife conservationist and heads the Systematics Lab at the University of Delhi, Department of Environmental Studies. He is dubbed as the "Frogman of India" by media for his passion for frogs and for bringing fresh fascination for Indian amphibians. In an interview with Sanctuary Asia, he was introduced as "one of the world's foremost amphibian experts".
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T.J. Chandrachoodan
- Years
- 1940-2022 (aged 82)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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T.J. Chandrachoodan was an Indian politician. He was the general secretary of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) in 2008 to 2018.
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Khyrunnisa A
- Born in
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India - Occupations
- children's writeracademic
- Biography
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Khyrunnisa A. is an Indian author of children's fiction, speaker, academic and columnist who also writes for adults. She created the comic book character 'Butterfingers'. The character first appeared in the Indian children's magazine Tinkle. Thirteen-year-old Amar Kishen, aka Butterfingers, now features in the eponymous Butterfingers series of novels and short story collections published by Puffin, the children's imprint of Penguin Random House India.
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T. V. Paul
- Years
- 1956-.. (age 68)
- Occupations
- political scientistauthor
- Biography
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Thazha Varkey Paul is an Indo-Canadian political scientist. He is a James McGill professor of International Relations in the department of Political Science at McGill University. Paul specializes in International Relations, especially international security, regional security and South Asia. He served as the president of the International Studies Association (ISA) during 2016–2017, and served as the founding director of the McGill University – Université de Montreal Centre for International Peace and Security Studies (CIPSS).
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Appu Kuttan
- Occupations
- engineer
- Biography
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Appu Kuttan, is an Indian American philanthropist, consultant, author, and the founder and chairman of the National Education Foundation (NEF), a global non-profit organization, founded in 1989. His philanthropic efforts include the distribution of over one million individualized courses at substantially reduced rates to public schools and colleges. He is the developer of Management By Systems (MBS) and Cyberlearning. He has written several books and articles, including Happy Executive — A Systems Approach; Nurturing Mind, Body and Soul and From Digital Divide to Digital Opportunity. He has served as an advisor to President Bill Clinton, India Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the President of Venezuela, and the Mauritius Prime Minister.
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P. K. Abdul Aziz
- Occupations
- biologist
- Biography
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P.K. Abdul Aziz, also known as P. K. Abdul Azis, is a scientist in ecology and biodiversity and an academic from India who has published 77 research papers,. He has been the Vice-Chancellor of Cochin University of Science and Technology and Aligarh Muslim University. He is also the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya. He is also the chairman of the Expert Committee for Revision of Curriculum for School Education, appointed by the Kerala government.
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Ayyappanpillai Ajayaghosh
- Occupations
- physicist
- Biography
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Ayyappanpillai Ajayaghosh is a research scientist/academician in the domain of interdisciplinary chemistry, and the former Director of the National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology. He is known for his studies on supramolecular assemblies, organogels, photoresponsive materials, chemosensory and security materials systems and is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies viz. the National Academy of Sciences, India, Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Sciences as well as The World Academy of Sciences. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Chemical Sciences in 2007. He is the first chemist to receive the Infosys Science Prize for physical sciences, awarded by the Infosys Science Foundation. He received the TWAS Prize of The World Academy of Sciences in 2013 and the Goyal prize in 2019.
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Jija Madhavan Harisingh
- Occupations
- police officer
- Biography
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Jija Hari Singh is a retired police officer. She was the first woman IPS officer (Indian Police Service) from South-India (Karnataka cadre). She remained in service for 36 years and retired in 2011 as Director General of Police (DGP).
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K. V. Sarma
- Occupations
- authorhistorianhistorian of mathematicsmathematician
- Biography
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Krishna Venkateswara Sarma was an Indian historian of science, particularly the astronomy and mathematics of the Kerala school. He was responsible for bringing to light several of the achievements of the Kerala school. He was editor of the Vishveshvaranand Indological Research Series, and published the critical edition of several source works in Sanskrit, including the Aryabhatiya of Aryabhata. He was recognised as "the greatest authority on Kerala's astronomical tradition".
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Thiruvizha Jayashankar
- Years
- 1940-.. (age 84)
- Occupations
- musician
- Biography
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Thiruvizha Jayashankar is an Indian classical musician and a well known Nadaswaram expert in South India.
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Sukumar
- Years
- 1932-2023 (aged 91)
- Occupations
- cartoonistartist
- Biography
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S. Sukumaran Potti, commonly known as Sukumar, was an Indian satirist and cartoonist from the state of Kerala.
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Abdul Sathar Kunju
- Occupations
- civil servant
- Biography
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M. Abdul Sathar Kunju is a 1963 Batch officer of Kerala Cadre of Indian Police Service who retired as the 21st Chief of Kerala Police in 1997.
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Mercy Williams
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Mercy Williams, a teacher turned politician, was the 16th Mayor of Kochi, Kerala, and the first woman to hold that position in Kochi. A member of the Left Democratic Front, she was elected via an open ballot over opposing United Democratic Front candidate Winnie Abraham by a ratio of 47 to 23 votes among Kochi corporation council members. On the council, Williams represented the municipal corporation's 36th division (Kunnumpuram).
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Stanley Roman
- Occupations
- Catholic bishopCatholic priest
- Biography
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Stanley Roman is an Indian prelate of the Catholic Church. He was Bishop of Quilon, India, from 2001 to 2018. He also chaired the education committee of the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council.
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Alexis Leon
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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Alexis Leon is an Indian software consultant and author of 50 books on IT, Internet, and management. Several of his books are included in the syllabuses of various universities in Africa, Europe, and Asia. His publications are also used as reference books in many organisations. His bestsellers are Internet for Everyone which has sold more than 200,000 copies and A Guide to Software Configuration Management which was the Artech House Bestseller for two years. Two of his books were translated into Mandarin. He is also a mentor at International Mentoring Network Organization.
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M. Radhakrishna Pillai
- Occupations
- academicmolecular biologistoncologistvirologist
- Biography
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Madhavan Radhakrishna Pillai is an Indian cancer biologist and the former director of the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology. Known for his studies on papilloma viruses, Pillai is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, India, Royal College of Pathologists and the National Academy of Medical Sciences. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences in 2002.
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Yuhanon Mor Militos
- Occupations
- priest
- Biography
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Mor Militos Yuhanon is a Syriac Orthodox bishop in Malankara. He is the Metropolitan of Thumpamon and Patriarchal Vicar of Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.