K.A.Padmanabhan

K.A. Padmanabhan obtained his B.Sc in Metallurgy from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India in 1968. He obtained his PhD from University of Cambridge, Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science (Now called Materials Science and Metallurgy), Cambridge, U.K. in February 1972.

He was a Lecturer in the Department of Metallurgical Engineering, Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, during 1972-74, became a Reader in the same Department in 1974 and was appointed a full professor in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India in January 1980, a position he held till September 1997. In October 1997, he took charge as the Director, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India and continued in that post till September 2001. He also held various visiting professorship assignments in University of Sheffield, UK, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, Technical University of Aachen, Technical University of Darmstadt, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, University of Muenster (the last four in Germany). He was the Jawaharlal Nehru Chair Professor, University of Hyderabad during 2004-06 and later University Chair Professor during 2010-15.

His present research interests in the areas of Superplasticityin different classes of engineering materials, severe plastic deformation of metallic materials, materials testing and materials processing, structure - property correlations in engineering materials, nanostructured materials.

• University of Cambridge, UK, conferred on him the higher degree of Doctor of Science (Sc.D.) for his "research contributions" in July 1998. He is the FIRST Indian Engineer / materials engineer to receive this rare distinction.
• FIRST INDIAN to receive the ‘FORSCHUNGSPREIS’ (Career Research Award) of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 1994
• Was appointed following a global screening process as the Mercator Professor of the DFG (German Research Foundation) during January - December 2009, a position he held at University of Muenster, Germany
• Honorary Academician, Bashkirian Academy of Sciences, Russia
• Life Fellow and Honorary Member, Indian Institute of Metals; FIIM
• Fellow, Indian National Academy of Engineering, FINAE
• Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences, FIAS
• Fellow, National Academy of Sciences, India, FNASI and several others.