Preeti Aghalayam Becomes First Woman Director of IIT Madras Zanzibar

By: Women Entrepreneurs Review Team | Tuesday, 29 September 2026

Preeti Aghalayam’s journey with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras spans more than three decades, from being a chemical engineering student to taking on a leadership role at its first international campus. In July 2023, she was appointed Director-in-Charge of IIT Madras Zanzibar in Tanzania, becoming the first woman to lead an IIT.

Preeti joined IIT Madras in 1991 as a chemical engineering student and graduated in 1995. She later pursued higher studies in the United States before returning to India and building an academic career focused on engineering education, research and institutional leadership.

At IIT Madras Zanzibar, Preeti has been involved in establishing the institute’s international campus and expanding its academic presence. The campus welcomed its first students from Zanzibar, mainland Tanzania, India and Nepal, with classes beginning in October 2023. Its initial academic programs focused on Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.

Key Highlights:

• Preeti became the first woman to lead an IIT after being appointed Director-in-Charge of IIT Madras Zanzibar in 2023
• Preeti spent 25 years at IIT Madras, contributing to chemical engineering research, teaching and academic programs
• She helped establish IIT Madras Zanzibar, which welcomed students from multiple countries and launched programs in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence

Preeti's passion for science started from an early age. She was born into a family of scholars in which the education and scientific world were discussed at all times. Her father was a professor of chemistry; her mother was working towards a PhD as well. Her mother's ongoing education during Preeti's high school years provided a preparation for persistence and the responsibilities of college.

That environment eventually led her towards engineering. She did her bachelor's studies at IIT, Madras, in 1995 and went on to study in the US. She received her Master’s in Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Rochester in 1995 and her PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2000.

She has also studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She went back to India and started faculty work in IIT Bombay, and then to IIT Madras in 2010.

Preeti spent 25 years at IIT Madras as a faculty member, teaching and pursuing research in chemical engineering. Her work has covered areas such as underground coal gasification, reducing nitrogen oxide emissions from automobiles, reactor modelling and simplifying large reaction mechanisms.

Her academic contributions have also brought recognition from professional and scientific organizations, including the Indian National Academy of Engineering and the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers. Her career at IIT Madras gave her experience not only in teaching and research but also in working with students and developing academic programs.

That experience became particularly relevant when she moved into the leadership role at IIT Madras Zanzibar. The campus represented a new direction for IIT Madras, requiring academic systems and programs to be developed in an international setting. The first cohort brought together students from multiple countries, adding an international dimension to the institute's teaching environment.

Preeti is now Dean of the Office of Global Engagement at IIT Madras. She continues to be associated with IIT Madras Zanzibar as a former director-in-charge and faculty member.

Her career has therefore remained closely connected to the institution where she began as an engineering student. From studying chemical engineering in Chennai to pursuing advanced research in the US, teaching at IIT Bombay and IIT Madras, and helping establish an IIT campus in Tanzania; her professional journey has covered several stages of higher education.

The IIT Madras classroom where Preeti began her engineering education in 1991 eventually became the starting point for a much wider academic journey. More than three decades later, that journey placed her at the helm of an IIT campus outside India and made her the first woman to lead an IIT.