The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur as announced Prof. Rintu Banerjee as the new Deputy Director of IIT Kharagpur. Prof Rintu has created a historical breakthrough by being the first woman to take over the charge of a Deputy Director of the first IIT of the country and the world.

Prof. Rintu is the Founder Head and is presently the Chairperson of P K Sinha Centre for Bioenergy and Renewables. She has also served as the Head of the Centre for Rural Development, Innovative and Sustainable Technology and Head of the Department of Agricultural & Food Engineering at IIT Kharagpur for 3 years.

In her career span, she has held many important portfolios including Chairperson of Centre of Excellence in Precision Agriculture & Food Nutrition; Nodal Coordinator for Australia and New Zealand for SPARC & Coordinator for RuTAG.

Prof. Rintu has completed her PhD in Microbial Biotechnology from Chemical Engineering Department at IIT Kharagpur. From the beginning of her career she was engaged in industry-academy collaborative research activities. As an outcome of her research, she has transferred several technologies to different industries and have many national/international patents to her credit. Recently, she has successfully transferred her 1G & 2G Ethanol technology to the industry for commercialisation.

She has published two books in the area of environmental biotechnology and OMICS Based Approaches in Plant Biotechnology.