Mallik S. Putcha, a systems engineer and independent consultant, has committed $100,000 to establish an endowment for the Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics (CAAM) at Rice University.
Though not a graduate of Rice Putcha decided to make this gift to Rice because of his son, Dr. Girish Putcha, “in appreciation for the many opportunities his Rice education provided to him.” Girish graduated from Rice in 1991 with a B.A. in medical ethics and health policy, and now is the chief medical officer and clinical laboratory director at Freenome, a South San Francisco-based startup.
The gift will support CAAM’s efforts in funding graduate fellowships, research seed funding for junior faculty and a lecture series. The fund will be named the Lakshmi Narasimham and Rama Lakshmi Putcha Excellence Fund to honor Mallik Putcha’s parents.