At a time when 44 Deemed Universities in the country were facing the threat of losing their status, SRM University in Tamil Nadu has come out with flying colours with its Research Scholar signing up as ‘Associate Scientist’ at the US-based Seagate Technologies for an annual package of of 2.80 lakh US Dollar (about Rupees 1.4 crore).

R Shivaraman of the Nanotechnology Research Center (NRC) has brought laurels to the SRM University ‘becoming the youngest Nano Scientist’ to take up the prestigious post to develop ultra high density storage devices for magnetic recording.

”I am delighted at this offer and I dedicate the honour to SRM University which encouraged me at every stage when my journey in Nanotechnology began six years ago,” an elated Mr Shivaraman told a press conference here.

The young scientist, who was always against brain-drain, said he would come back to the country after completing his five-year contractual obligation with Seagate Technologies.

”I will come back and associate with SRM’s Nanotechnology Research Centre which is always close to my heart,” he said.

Mr Shivaraman, who has enrolled for the MS integrated PhD Programme at the NRC at SRM University, would take up the Associate Scientist post at Seagate Technologies, California, in December this year after completing his PhD programme.

He had recently come up with an innovative polymer templated lithography process which allowed fabrication of patterned magnetic media with density of around 30Tb (30,000 GB/inch2) and submitted the same for patent both in India and the US along with Mr C Gopalakrishnan, Director, Nanotechnology Research Centre.