Brown Engineering Professor at Large Subra Suresh has been appointed a member of the Governing Board of the newly established Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) of India. ANRF will act as an apex body to provide high-level strategic direction of scientific research, and now encompasses the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), which was established by Parliament in 2008.
The foundation will seed, grow and promote research and development and foster a culture of research and innovation throughout India’s universities, colleges, research institutions and R&D laboratories. It is a move to provide a high-level strategic direction for research, innovation and entrepreneurship in the fields of natural sciences, including mathematical sciences, engineering and technology, environmental and earth sciences, health and agriculture, and have a long-term effect and outcomes for each citizen of India.
The 15-member governing board of the ANRF includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi as president. The ministers of science and technology, and education will serve as the two vice presidents. Secretaries to the departments of science and technology, scientific and industrial research, biotechnology, and higher education will be joined on the governing board by Suresh, Princeton University Professor Manjul Bhargav, chairman of Symphony Technology Group (Calif.) Romesh Wadhwani, Indian Council for Historical Research chair Raghuvendra Tanwar, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research director Jayaram Chengalur, and Indian Institute of Science director G Rangarajan.
Suresh is a leading scientist, engineer and researcher, with decades of distinguished positions in academia and is an elected member of numerous science and engineering academies. He was successively Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), President of Carnegie Mellon University, and President of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He has served as an independent director of publicly listed companies and as a member of science and technology councils advising the CEOs of multinational corporations. Along with his professor at large position at Brown, he is a Vannevar Bush Professor Emeritus at MIT, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology.
Suresh was awarded the National Medal of Science, the highest honor accorded to an American Scientist, in a ceremony at the White House in October 2023. He has also been awarded the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, the highest recognition from the Republic of France by the President of France, and the Padma Shri medal from the President of India. He is an elected fellow of all three branches of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors.
Born in India, Suresh graduated from high school at 15 and received his undergraduate degree in first class with distinction from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in Chennai. He received a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Iowa State University in 1979 and a doctorate in mechanical engineering from MIT in 1981.