The Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) has honoured six school teachers with the First Principles Teachers Award 2026 for their contributions to teaching of physics, chemistry, and mathematics, thereby building strong foundations for future engineers.

The award winners were Sanjay Kumar from Pune and Asheshanand Acharya from Bengaluru for physics, Kapil Birthare of Indore and C. Chitti Babu of Tirupati for chemistry, and Samudrala Vijaya Kumar of Tirupati and Nishant Sharma of Kota for mathematics.

The incoming batch of undergraduate students of IIT-M nominated their pre-university teachers who had the greatest impact on their learning. An expert team then reviewed the nominated teachers and selected the winners. This was the second edition of the awards, which were given away by V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT-M, in the presence of Prathap Haridoss, Dean (Academic Courses), IIT-M.