Rate My Professor M.S. Ramachandra Rao

M.S. Ramachandra Rao is a Professor in the Department of Physics at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, where he serves as an Institute Chair Professor and Prof. R. Srinivasan Chair Professor. He heads the Nanostructured systems and Advanced Materials group located in the Materials Science Research Centre. His research activities focus on the physics and applications of nanostructured thin films and nanomaterials, including the growth of ZnO nanostructures and doped ZnO for white light emission and UV detection, magnetic nanoparticles for magnetic hyperthermia and water purification, fabrications of magnetic tunnel junctions, magnetoelectric coupling studies in multiferroics, nanocrystalline diamond wear resistant coatings for industrial applications, and nanosystems for alternative photovoltaic applications. He also leads initiatives in diamondtronics, oxide electronics, superconducting diamond, spin transport in oxide heterostructures, and lab-grown diamond technologies, including as principal investigator for the India Centre for Lab Grown Diamond at IIT Madras.

He earned his education from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. His career at IIT Madras includes roles as Research Associate in the Materials Science Research Centre from 1991 to 1993, followed by progression to Professor in 2006, Senior Professor from 2013, and Chair Professor thereafter. He has held numerous visiting faculty and professorship positions, including at the Walther Meissner Institute in Garching, Germany; Kyushu University and Shibaura Institute of Technology in Japan; University of Maryland; University of Montpellier, University of Rennes, and Technical University of Munich through the Erasmus Mundus program; and IISER Trivandrum. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP), UK, and has received awards including the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, JSPS Fellowship, and DAAD STAR Professor in 2010. He serves as Editorial Board Member and Section Editor for the Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics published by the Institute of Physics, UK. He has authored over 225 publications, led more than 20 projects, secured over 15 patents, and completed four technology transfers. He has also been a council member of the Materials Research Society of India.