Thrissur: A 66-year-old man and his daughter in Kerala have made a distinctive achievement by earning PhD together.

K N Sivarajan, a native of Koozhoor in the Ernakulam district, and his daughter S Nirmal, 32, completed their open defence on Friday and became PhD-holders in electrical engineering. Sivarajan's eldest son S Rahul is a research student at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai.

After completing BTech from the Government Engineering College, Thrissur, Sivarajan became an assistant engineer at the KSEB in 1980. He also secured second rank in MTech in industrial power system trade from Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) in 1989. He retired as the chief engineer in 2010. After that, he worked as the head of the electrical department in two self-financing colleges.

His daughter completed MTech from the Federal Institute of Science and Technology (FISAT) at Angamaly in 2014. When Sivarajan shared his earlier aspiration of earning PhD with his daughter, she too decided to join him.

Both of them then wrote the entrance of the Kerala Technological University and registered for the three-year, full-time PhD programme. They pursued research under the supervision of associate professor E A Jasmin of the Government Engineering College. They also rented out a house near the engineering college for their research. Sivarajan's wife K S Sunitha is a retired staff of the BSNL.