V. Ramgopal Rao
Venu Ramgopal Rao is an Indian academic currently serving as the Vice Chancellor of Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani. He was previously the Director of IIT, Delhi. He was the P.K.Kelkar Chair Professor in Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay before joining IIT Delhi as the Director. Rao has more than 480 publications in various journals, and over 50 patents in the areas of Electron devices and Nanoelectronics. Rao was the first elected chairman for the Indian Section of the American Nano Society. He is also the recipient of multiple prizes including the Swarnajayanti Fellowship, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, Infosys Prize, Techno-Visionary award from the Indian Semiconductor Association in 2020, the IBM faculty award in 2007 and the IEEE EDS Education award in 2020 besides many others. He is a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc), National Academy of Sciences (NASI) and the Indian National Science Academy (INSA). Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) director During Rao's tenure as Director, IIT Delhi has seen an unprecedented growth. IIT Delhi received the Institution of Eminence (IoE) status in 2018 under his leadership, one of the first three Govt institutions to be selected for this recognition following a tough selection process. During his term, the annual research output of the institute (publications) has seen over a 100% growth. Over 225 new faculty members have been appointed in the institute during his tenure as Director. Institute has filed over 500 patents (more than the previous 55 years of total patent filings) and obtained record levels of industry and research funding. The sponsored research funding from competitive grants have gone up by four times in the institute during his tenure as Director. Through Faculty-Interdisciplinary Research Programme (FIRP) and Multi-institutional FIRP (M-FIRP) initiatives, an unprecedented growth has taken place in inter-institutional and inter-disciplinary research areas. Startup activities in the Institute have also reached record levels, thanks to the Faculty Innovation and Research Driven Entrepreneurship (FIRE) and the Student Startup Action Plan programmes initiated by Rao. During Rao's tenure, the institute has also created 18 new Centers of Excellence with funding from alumni, industries and government agencies. 10 New academic entities have been created during his time either by upgrading the existing Centers or by catalyzing new activities. Over 20 new academic programmes (such as B Tech, M.Sc., B.Des, MS(R)) have been launched by the institute during his term as Director. Two joint PhD programmes have been initiated with the University of Queensland in Australia and NCTU in Taiwan during his time. These are the first ever joint degree programmes at IIT Delhi. Institute has also created over 2 Million sq. ft. of additional built up space under his leadership to meet the institute's expansion needs. Also, the alumni fund donations to the institute during his term have exceeded the last 55 year total value of donations by a