

Introduction
Chandrashekar Nataraj ,an American-Indian scientist, holds theMr. and Mrs. Robert F. Moritz, Sr. Endowed Chair in Engineered Systems in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Villanova University:.
Biography
C. Nataraj attended Indian Institute of Technology from 1977 to 1982 where he received the Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering degree. After graduating he moved to Arizona State University where he received his M.Sc degree in Mechanical Engineeringin 1984 for his research on “The Simulation of Cracked Shaft Dynamics”. He then received his PhD degree in Engineering Science in 1987 for his research on “Periodic Solution in Nonlinear Mechanical Systems”,supervised by Professor Harold D. Nelson at Arizona State University
Academic work
Hehas worked on research problemsin nonlinear dynamic systems with applications to machinery diagnostics, rotor dynamics, vibration, control, electromagnetic bearings, mobile robotics, unmanned vehicles and biomedical diagnostics.
Research
Nataraj has founded and established 2 major research centers in the college of engineering at Villanova University. He served as founding director of interdisciplinary research center called Center for Nonlinear Dynamics and Control (CENDAC)which was founded in 2003.
Other professional activities
- Research Engineer and Vice President, Trumpler Associates, Inc., West Chester, PA.
Honors
- Elected Fellow of American Society of Mechanical Engineers
- Elected member of the Franklin Institute's Committee of the Sciences and the Arts
- Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Turbo Research Foundation
- Serves onASME’s Technical Committee on Vibration & Sound, the IFToMM Committee,
- North American Editor for the journal Advances in Vibration Engineering