Chennai, 11th April 2018: Indian Institute of Technology Madras Faculty Prof. Krishnan Balasubramanian has been awarded the first Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation National Fellowship by Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) in 2018.
This prestigious Fellowship has been recently instituted to recognize, encourage and support translational research by individuals who have achieved excellence in engineering, innovation and technology development. He is currently a Chair Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras, and also serves as the Head of the Centre for Nondestructive Evaluation which he founded in 2001.
Speaking about the Fellowship, Prof. Krishnan Balasubramaniam said, “I am glad that INAE and Department of Science and Technology (DST) have instituted this award to recognize the technology innovators in India. I am humbled by this recognition.”
The Fellowship will support Prof. Krishnan Balasubramanian in conducting advanced research in the area of Ultrasonic Waveguide Sensor Systems. This Technology Innovation Fellowship is for three years and extendable further by a period of two years.
The award citation includes “This honour is indeed a befitting recognition of your outstanding contributions in the field of Non-destructive Evaluation and Sensors as well as your leadership role in the growth of the engineering profession in the country.”
It further states “Therefore your research has to lead to deliverables in terms of development of a product, its validation and commercialization of the product based on novel technology.”
He received his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Madras (Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirapalli, India) in 1984. He then graduated from Drexel University with a M.S. degree in 1986 and a Ph.D. in 1989.
He has over 410 technical publications (including 210 refereed journal papers), 17 patents filings and has directed 23 PHD student dissertations and 46 MS student theses.
In recognition for his outstanding contributions to research in the field of Nondestructive Evaluation, he was conferred with the ROY SHARPE PRIZE by the British Institute for NDT for the year 2012. He was also awarded the ISTEM Entrepreneurial Faculty Member Award for his entrepreneurial activities by Auburn University, USA in 2011 and the NATIONAL NDT AWARD 2010 by the Indian Society for NDT. He also was conferred the DRDO Academy Excellence Award for 2015.
He has been instrumental in the incubation of several startups including Dhvani Research, Playns Technologies, Detect Technologies, Maximl Labs, Trotix Robotics, HyperVerge, and Solinas Integrity, and has jointly developed several new products through these companies.
He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal for Nondestructive Evaluation (ISNT) and as the South-east Asia Editor for the Journal of Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation (Taylor and Francis). He also serves as the Associate Editor of Ultrasonics (Elsevier), subject editor for Journal of NDT&E International (Elsevier) and serves in the editorial board of the Journal of Structural Longevity (Techscience). He also is a board member of the World Federation of NDE Centers and the QNDE Scientific Advisor Committee. He is a Life Fellow of the Academia NDT International, Life Fellow of the Indian Society of Nondestructive Testing (ISNT) and a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineers.
