An alumnus of Jadavpur University, who is based in the US now, inaugurated a laboratory of the chemical engineering department on Friday. The lab was renovated with his contribution of ₹1 crore.

Part of the amount went into setting up a centre for sustainable development.

Sanat Chattopadhyay, who graduated from the chemical engineering department in 1981, said that the laboratory “had fallen into a state of disrepair” and needed urgent restoration.

Chattopadhyay now heads a division of a global pharmaceutical chain headquartered in the US.

“The building and equipment, crucial for hands-on education for any chemical engineer, were in urgent need of restoration. It was clear that without intervention, the heart of practical chemical engineering education here would suffer,” he said in the presence of the JU pro-vice-chancellor, registrar and officials.

Chattopadhyay later told Metro he was “shocked” to see the condition of the laboratory. “I would say the condition was much better in 1981 when we graduated. With the corpus of ₹70 lakh, we had to do a lot of civil engineering and buy the latest equipment.”

He contributed ₹30 lakh to develop the Sanat Chattopadhyay Research Centre for Sustainable Development (SCRES), which is an integral academic establishment set up with a mission to drive high-impact research in sustainability, ensuring economic growth while maintaining ecological balance.

On May 24 last year, Metro reported that Chattopadhyay visited the campus in January and met JU pro-vice-chancellor Amitava Datta, who looks after the university’s alumni cell.