By Geeta Goindi
September 12, 2026 – Indian-American engineer and entrepreneur Manmohan Singh Kalsi and his wife, Marie-Luise Schubert Kalsi, have committed $4 million to the University of Houston, giving back to the American institution that Kalsi credits with helping launch his remarkable journey from a young immigrant and graduate student to a successful engineer, inventor and business owner.
The gift, one of the largest philanthropic commitments to the university’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in recent years, will strengthen education and research at the Cullen College of Engineering, supporting faculty, graduate students and emerging innovation.
For Kalsi, the contribution carries a deeply personal meaning — an expression of gratitude to the university, and to the country where he found the opportunities to build his career and company.
“The University (of Houston) gave me a head start,” Kalsi has said. “If I didn’t have that head start, I wouldn’t be as successful, and our company would not have made the world-wide impact that it has today.”
Kalsi graduated from Punjab Engineering College (PEC) in Chandigarh with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1967 and immigrated to the United States within months. He enrolled at the University of Houston, where he earned both his master’s degree and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering.
Like many young immigrants beginning their lives in America, Kalsi started modestly. While pursuing their graduate studies, he and a classmate from India shared an apartment with two other recent Indian immigrants, taking turns cooking, cleaning and managing household chores. The friendships forged during those early years have endured for decades.
One relationship at the university would prove particularly consequential. Kalsi credits the mentorship of the late Professor Gabriel Fazekas with playing a pivotal role in shaping his future as an engineer and entrepreneur. Years later, in 2014, Kalsi and his wife honored Fazekas by establishing an endowed professorship at the Cullen College.
In 1978, Kalsi founded Houston-based Kalsi Engineering, which became internationally recognized for pioneering hydrodynamic rotary sealing technology and advancing valve technology used to improve the safety and reliability of nuclear power plants.
Nearly five decades later, his relationship with the University of Houston extends well beyond philanthropy. His company has employed and mentored graduates of the Cullen College, creating opportunities for young engineers at the same institution where he once studied. Kalsi has also maintained close ties with the college’s faculty and served for many years as chairman of the Mechanical Engineering Department’s Industrial Advisory Board.
The Kalsis’ latest $4 million commitment will establish two endowed professorships to attract and retain leading faculty, create the Kalsi Faculty Research Fund to advance emerging research and provide endowed and current-use fellowships to recruit outstanding graduate students. The Kalsi Seminar Series will also bring internationally recognized researchers and industry leaders to campus, fostering collaboration and the exchange of ideas.
“Manmohan Kalsi’s journey from UH graduate student to industry innovator and entrepreneur embodies the transformative impact of the Cullen College of Engineering,” said Dean Pradeep Sharma. “This gift will help us to recruit and retain world-class faculty while providing our graduate students the financial support and research infrastructure needed to solve real-world challenges.”
Russell T. Dunlavy, the university’s vice president for advancement and alumni, said the Kalsis “exemplify the enduring impact of a University of Houston education,” noting that the success of Kalsi Engineering grew from the talent, mentorship and spirit of innovation that define the university.
The contribution is also a cornerstone gift to the University of Houston’s Centennial Campaign, an initiative focused on student success, institutional innovation and campus transformation as the university looks toward its next century.
Kalsi’s philanthropy has, in many ways, become a two-way bridge between his origins and his adopted home. The immigrant who built his career and company in the United States has chosen to give back both to the American university that helped shape his professional journey and to the institution in India where his engineering education began.
In India, Kalsi has also supported PEC, his undergraduate alma mater. In 2017, he pledged Rs. 1.67 crore to the institution and returned to Chandigarh for the 50th reunion of his graduating class.
He has remained engaged with PEC, interacting with students and alumni and sharing the story of his journey from an engineering graduate in India to an entrepreneur and internationally recognized innovator in the United States.
Nearly six decades after arriving in America as a young engineering graduate, Kalsi’s latest gift brings his journey full circle – investing the fruits of a successful immigrant career in the education and mentorship of future generations of engineers.
