MY SCHOOLING

My Background

I am currently a Industry Professor in the School of Applied Technology's Industrial Technology and Management (INTM) program at Illinois Institute of Technology.

Childhood (1961-1976)

I was born in Nellore, India, to G.V. Sundara Rajan and G.V. Seshamma. My father was a Senior Hydrogeologist in the Geological Survey of India (GSI) and then in the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB). I grew up in Hyderabad and went to Paul's Primary School through 2nd grade. I then went to Ravindra Niketan until I finished my 5th grade. I have fond memories of Ravindra Niketan and its Principal, Smt. Renuka Mukherjee. I transferred to St. Paul's High School for middle school and studied there until I finished my S.S.C. I had the great fortune of learning from excellent teachers- masters who laid the foundation for my education. Rasool Sir, Sakina Mirza madam, Edna Aranha madam, Irene madam, Krishnamurthy Sir, and many others were the heart and soul of St. Paul's for me and many other students.

Junior College (1976-1978)

After passing S.S.C., I was selected to attend Little Flower Junior College, then two years old. Brother Emmanuel had just become its Principal. LFJC shaped my career. The fabulous pair of Narasimha Reddy and Usha Iyer did not just teach me Mathematics and Chemistry, they brought them to life and I fell in love with these subjects. They also prepared me to write the JEE for the IITs. I am forever grateful to Narasimha Reddy and Usha Iyer for the time they spent with me and made my two years at LFJC the best years of my life.

IIT (1978-1983)

In 1978 I ranked #524 in JEE and was admitted to the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. I was the last cohort in the 5 year engineering program. I graduated with a Bachelor of Technology degree in Chemical Engineering. I had many excellent professors at IIT including

Northwestern University (1983-1989)

Aftergraduating from IIT I joined Northwestern University's Industrial Engineering and Management Science (IEMS) Department to pursue a M.S. / Ph.D. I obtained my M.S. in 1984 in Operations Research. I did my Ph.D. thesis under Prof. Ajit Tamhane and finished my thesis defense in 1989, and obtained my Ph.D. in 1991. My thesis was titled "A Bayesian Approach to Comparisons with a Control." During my graduate program I spent many hours solving difficult problems and playing sports with fellow students, who are among my best friends. I am forever grateful to James Zydiak, Glenn Good, Jeff Sirkin, Martin Czigler, Shankar Narasimhan, John Simon, and many others for motivating me during the difficult years.

Northwestern University (1994-95)

While working full-time at Tellabs I joined Kellogg Graduate School to take a few courses in the MBA program and get a strong foundation in core business areas like Accounting, Finance, Marketing and Strategy.