Professor Padmanaban Govindarajan

Padmanaban Govindarajan was born on 20 March 1938 in Bangalore,India. He is a renowned biochemist and a pioneer in Indian biotechnology. Currently,he holds the NASI-Platinum Jubilee Chair/Honorary Professor at the Indian Instituteof Science, Bengaluru.

He completed his BSc from Presidency College, Madras University in 1958, MSc from IARI New Delhi in 1960 and Ph.D from IISc in 1966. He worked as AssistantProfessor (1969-75), Associate Professor (1975- 80) and as Professor (1980 onwards) at IISc, Bangalore. He was Director of the Indian Institute of Science during 1994-98. He served as Honorary Professor/Emeritus Scientist (1998-2005) and Distinguished Biotechnologist (DBT) during 2003 to 2007. He worked as UGC/British Council young scientist at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, London, U.K. (1969-70), Senior Fulbright Scholar, University of Chicago (1973-74) and Visiting Scientist/Professor, University of Chicago for a decade (1975-86).

Professor Padmanaban is the recipient of many prestigious honors and awards. Notable ones are: Sarma Memorial Award (SBC); Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award(CSIR); Bhasin Award in Biotechnology; Ranbaxy Award; B.R. Ambedkar (ICMR)
and DSc (h.c.) from Banaras Hindu University. He is a recipient of Golden JubileeSenior Biotechnology Fellowship award of DBT 1997; UNESCO Chair in Biotechnology (2000), Distinguished Biotechnology Award (2003), G.M. Modi Award (2005). Genome Valley Award (2007), NASI-Platinum Jubilee Chair (December 2007) and the Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Award instituted by the Indian Science Congress (2008). Recognisinf Professor Padmanaban’s contributions, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri (1991) and Padma Bhushan(2004) awards.