Meet Rajeev Motwani: IIT-Kanpur alumnus who mentored Google founders Sergey Brin, Larry Page, recognising search engine’s potential early

In a quiet office at Stanford University in the mid-1990s, Professor Rajeev Motwani was doing what he loved most challenging students to think differently. A graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Motwani had already built a strong name in computer science.

However when two young PhD students, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, began working on an unusual search engine idea, Motwani saw promise where others saw risk. Long before the world knew the name Google, he believed it could change everything.