Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, IIT Kharagpur at a ceremony held in San Francisco. Mr Pichai was conferred with an honorary Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa), while his wife Anjali Pichai received the Distinguished Alumnus Award for her achievements in Chemical Engineering.
In an Instagram post, the CEO of Google and Alphabet revealed that his parents had always hoped he would pursue a PhD. He also expressed gratitude towards the institute for helping him reach where he is today. The event, held in San Francisco, was attended by notable figures such as VK Tewari, Director of IIT Kharagpur, as well as Sundar Pichai's parents and daughter.
''Last week I was grateful to receive an honorary doctorate from my alma mater IIT Kharagpur. My parents always hoped I would get my doctorate, I think an honorary one still counts:) The access to education and technology at IIT put me on a path to Google and help more people access technology. IIT's role in technology will only grow in importance with the AI revolution, and I will always be thankful for my time there,'' he wrote while sharing two images from the award ceremony.
See the post here:
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A post shared by Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai)
Reacting to the caption, one user wrote, ''Parents are all the same. Regardless of who Sundar Pichai is today, his parents are not satisfied without a PhD. They always want to see their children achieve more.'' Another commented, ''You deserve it, sir. You did more than any full time doctorate could do.''
A third said, ''Brown parents be like: You may be CEO, but you should still have that PhD.''
After completing his B.Tech in metallurgical and materials engineering from IIT, Mr Pichai did his M.S. in Engineering and Materials Science from Stanford University and an MBA from the Wharton School and joined Google in 2004. It was during this time in the campus that he fell in love with his classmate Anjali and married her later.