IIT Madras honours six educators with First Principles Teachers Award 2026
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Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) honoured six outstanding school teachers with the ‘First Principles Teachers Award 2026’. The awards were presented by Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, on the campus on Monday (9th March 2026).
They were recognised for their exceptional contribution in nurturing curiosity and strong conceptual foundations among pre-university students in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. These educators instilled curiosity and wonder in their students and laid a strong foundation for their upcoming engineering studies.
The 2026 edition marks the second edition of this award instituted by IIT Madras. The initiative highlights the critical role played by school teachers in shaping the academic journeys of students who later pursue higher education in science and engineering.
It celebrates teachers who help students develop a “first principles’ understanding” of the subject — an approach that enables learners to think analytically and perform better in engineering education and beyond.
Congratulating the Educators, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “We believe that teachers at school play the most influential part in shaping the career of a student. They can promote the right way of thinking and learning at a very early stage of their career. This crucial contribution many times goes unnoticed. At IIT Madras, we aspire to recognise the same through this humble effort. We believe that this will have a positive impact on many more teachers across Bharat thus enabling quality school education for all, which as envisaged in the National education policy 2020, is a must to improve the Gross Enrolment Ratio of percentage of children pursuing higher education in our country.”
Further, Prof. Prathap Haridoss, Dean (Academic Courses), IIT Madras, said, “Incoming students with a strong grounding in first principles at the school level tend to perform better during their time at IIT and in their future careers. Science and engineering education can be really exciting if the students approach it the right way.”
The selection process began with incoming undergraduate students of IIT Madras nominating their pre-university teachers who had the greatest impact on their learning. An expert team then interviewed the nominated teachers and selected the winners. As part of the process, the shortlisted teachers were also encouraged to invite their current students to express support by voting for them.
The six teachers honoured in the 2026 edition represent institutions across the country and were recognised for their excellence in teaching core science subjects.
Awardees of the First Principles Teachers Award 2026:
- Sanjay Kumar – Physics – Pune, Maharashtra
- Asheshanand Acharya – Physics – Bangalore, Karnataka
- Kapil Birthare – Chemistry – Indore, Madhya Pradesh
- C. Chitti Babu – Chemistry – Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh
- Samudrala Vijaya Kumar – Mathematics – Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh
- Nishant Sharma – Mathematics – Kota, Rajasthan
This year’s award received nominations from teachers across several cities and towns in India, reflecting the widespread impact of inspiring science educators.
Nominations were received from locations including Ajmer, Bangalore, Bhopal, Calicut, Chennai, Delhi, Dhanbad, Gudivada, Guntur, Guwahati, Hosur, Hubli, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Khammam, Kolkata, Kota, Kozhikode, Mangaluru, Mohali, Mumbai, Nagpur, Navi Mumbai, Nellore, New Delhi, Panchetti (Ponneri), Pune, Rajkot, Sonipat, Tirupati, Trichy, Trivandrum, Vellore, Vijayawada and Virudhunagar, among others.
