1983/B.Tech/EE Emeritus Professor, Raman Research Institute Karnataka,India
Professor R Subrahmanyan received his Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from IITM in 1983, followed by a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the Physics Dept. of IISc, Bangalore, in 1990. Following a distinguished career working at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and then with research groups in Europe and Australia, the Raman Trust invited Subrahmanyan to take up the Directorship of Raman Research Institute (RRI) in 2005. RRI is a premier research institute founded by the Nobel Laureate Sir C. V. Raman and is today an autonomous institute nurtured by the DST, Government of India. As Director for 15 years, he was Chief Executive and Academic Officer and responsible for the administration of the Institute in addition to general supervision over all the programmes and research projects. He is well engaged in the field of science. Currently, he is Research Scientist with Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).
He has authored and co-authored almost 200 publications in research in astronomy and engineering.
His research has been in a broad range – observational astronomy across the electromagnetic spectrum and covering phenomenology from massive stars, star-forming regions, our Galaxy and interstellar medium, active galaxies and cosmology, theoretical work on the origin of the X-ray background and structure formation, experimental astronomy involving design and construction of innovative special-purpose radio telescopes, antennas and receivers for key problems in cosmology, using radio-interferometer facilities in non-standard modes for specific problems, and conversely recognizing the astrophysical problem for which a non-standard mode gives an ‘unfair’ advantage. His current research focus is on the history of the evolving universe for which he formed a research group of engineers and physicists at RRI, designing and building novel radiometers, antennas, and spectrometers for precision measurement of faint cosmological signals.
Prof. Subrahmanyan is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and of the National Academy of Sciences India. He was recipient of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Alumni Association Excellence Award 2015. He has been a member of governing bodies of several prestigious DST Institutes and a Member of the Program Advisory Committee of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) of the US.
For his exemplary accomplishments in achieving academic excellence in astronomy and astrophysics, managerial excellence as Director of RRI, and technology innovation excellence in designing the most sensitive radiometers, IIT Madras and its Alumni are proud to confer this award upon Prof. Ravi Subrahmanyan
