He is a very good person and good adminstrator. As Incharge Telephones IIT Kanpur I had very close relationship with him. Myself and my wife Pansy Mani send our condelence to the family. Mani and Pansy at Chennai
Professor. M. P. Kapoor
(1934-2011)
Department of Civil Engineering and Former Deputy Director,
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Professor MP Kapoor was born on August 9, 1934 at Kanpur. He did his B.Sc. from Christ Church College, Kanpur, B. Tech in Civil Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, MS in Structural Engineering from University of Minnesota, and PhD in Engineering Mechanics from Case Institute of Technology, Cleveland, Ohio.
Prof. Kapoor joined IIT, Kanpur as a Lecturer in 1961 as founder member of Civil Engineering Department, was promoted as Assistant Professor in 1968, Associate Professor in 1971, and as a Professor in 1974. He was appointed as DOFA in December 1976 and became Deputy Director in December 1988 and was Officiating Director of the Institute from July 1991 for about a year. His areas of specialization include Structural Dynamics, Structural Optimization, Earthquake Engineering and Computer-aided design.
He worked for some time as an engineer in the U.P. Irrigation Department. He went to Iraq for two years in 1986. He worked along with Professor GD Agarwal in the Civil Engineering Department at IIT Kanpur.
Professor Kapoor availed VRS on December 2, 1993. After retirement from IIT Kanpur in 1993, he became the Vice Chancellor of Thapar University, Patiala and concurrently the Director, Thapar Centre for Industrial Research & Development for ten years.
Prof. Kapoor has been associated with NIIT Limited as advisor on the NIIT University Project since May 2005 and has taken over as the Founding Vice-Chancellor of NIIT University (NU) in December 2005. He also helped in setting up the Axis University recently in Kanpur.
Prof. Kapoor has presented and published 40 papers in National and International Conferences and National and International referred Journals. He has also been the founder member of the editorial board of an International Journal entitled "Engineering Optimization".
Prof. Kapoor has also been the Chairman and member of various National Committees on higher education constituted by AICTE, UGC, and MHRD.
Professor Kapoor was an excellent teacher. He was responsible for starting the PG course on optimization in early seventies. In the very first year, about 70 students had registered in the course. In his death, the area of optimization has lost a keen and dedicated researcher.
Since May 2010, Professor Kapoor had been staying with his son at Indra Nagar. He breathed his last in the early hours of June 23, 2011. Professor Kapoor is survived by his wife, Mrs. Shakuntala Kapoor, daughter Mrs. Rashmi Mehrotra, son Manoj Kapoor, and two grand daughters and one grandson.
The Institute expresses its deepest condolences to the family of Prof. Kapoor on his sad and sudden demise.