Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao is currently the Pillay Chair Professor in EE and the immediate Past Director of IIT Delhi. Before joining IIT Delhi as the Director in April 2016, Dr. Rao served as a P. K. Kelkar Chair Professor for Nanotechnology in the Department of Electrical Engineering and as the Chief Investigator for the
Centre of Excellence in Nanoelectronics project at IIT Bombay. Dr. Rao has over
480 research publications in the area of nano-scale devices & Nanoelectronics and is an inventor on over
50 patents, which include 20 issued US patents. 15 of his patents have been licensed to industries for commercialization. Prof. Rao is a co-founder of two deep technology startups at IIT Bombay (
Nanosniff &
Soilsens) which are developing products of relevance to the society. Dr. Rao is a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Indian National Science Academy.
Prof. Rao’s research and leadership contributions have been recognized with over 35
awards and honors in the country and abroad. He is a recipient of three honorary doctorates. The recognitions Prof. Rao received include the
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Engineering Sciences,
Infosys Prize, IEEE EDS Education Award, Excellence in Research awards from IIT Bombay, DAE and DRDO, Swarnajayanti Fellowship award from the Department of Science & Technology, IBM Faculty award, Best Research award from the Intel Asia Academic Forum, Techno-Visionary award from the Indian Semiconductor Association, J.C.Bose National Fellowship among many others. Prof. Rao was an Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices during 2003-2012 for the CMOS Devices and Technology area and currently serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of ACS Nano Letters, a leading international journal in the area of Nanotechnology. He also serves as an Editor for the IEEE Journal on Flexible Electronics.
Dr. Rao served as the Chairman, IEEE AP/ED Bombay Chapter, Chairman, INAE Delhi Chapter and as Vice-Chairman, IEEE Asia Pacific Regions/Chapters sub-committee. He was the first elected Chairman for the India section, American Nano Society during 2013-2015.