Google CEO Sundar Pichai, along with his wife Anjali Pichai, were conferred an honorary doctorate by their alma mater Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur at an event in San Francisco last week. Sundar Pichai received the Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) award while his wife Anjali Pichai was honoured with the Distinguished Alumni Award. Anjali Pichai, who has a background in chemical engineering, completed BTech with honours from IIT-Kharagpur in 1993. The Google CEO shared two photos from the awards ceremony in a recent Instagram post. “Last week I was grateful to receive an Honorary Doctorate from my alma mater, IIT Kharagpur.

In the post, Pichai also expressed his gratitude to the institute, which helped him reach where he is today. “Education and access to technology at IIT led me to Google and helped more people gain access to technology. IIT’s role in technology will become even more important with the AI ​​revolution, and I will always be grateful for my time spent there,” his post further read.

Sundar Pichai has shared two photos on his Instagram, in one photo he is seen receiving the award, and in the other photo he is seen greeting the officials of the institute, who went to San Francisco to confer the degree to the Google CEO.

According to an Indian Express report, IIT Kharagpur said in a statement that Sundar Pichai was conferred the honorary doctorate for his “contribution to digital transformation, affordable technology and path-breaking innovations”.

The institute’s statement reportedly said, “In recognition of his outstanding contributions towards digital transformation, affordable technology and pioneering innovations, the Institute’s Visitor President Draupadi Murmu conferred the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) on Pichai in his absence at the 69th Convocation of IIT-Kharagpur in December last year. However, since Pichai was not present at the annual convocation, the institute decided to contact him later. On July 23, the institute’s authorities held the conferment ceremony in San Francisco.”

Pichai earned a bachelor’s degree in metallurgical engineering from IIT Kharagpur before moving to the United States for further studies. He earned a master’s degree in materials science and engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was honored as a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar.

Pichai joined Google in 2004 after spending some time at McKinsey. At Google he led product management and innovation for several major products, including Chrome, Chrome OS, and Google Drive. He also played a key role in the development of Google Maps and took over the management of Android in 2013. In August 2015, Pichai was appointed CEO of Google.