Suhas Pandurang Sukhatme

Sukhatme delivered the Daulat Singh Kothari Memorial Award Lecture in 2005 at the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) where he is an elected Fellow. He is also an elected Fellow of Maharashtra Academy of Sciences, Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences, India . He is an elected member of the Society of Sigma Xe and a Fellow of the Indian Society for Technical Education.

Suhas Pandurang Sukhatme is an Indian scientist, teacher, author and a former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board of the Government of India, known for his expertise in heat transfer and energy technologies. He was honoured by the Government of India, in 2001, with the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri.

During his stay at MIT, he worked as a research assistant during 1959–64. He moved to Dynatech Corporation where he worked for a year as a staff engineer. In 1965, he returned to India to join the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay as an assistant professor at the department of mechanical engineering. After a series of promotions, as the professor in 1970, as the head of the department in 1973, and as the deputy director in 1975, he became the director of the institution in 1995, a post he held till he retired in 2000 with the title of the Professor Emeritus of the institution. During this period, he also had a brief stint at the Iowa State University as a visiting professor in the academic year, 1982–83. Post retirement from IIT Bombay, he worked as the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board of the Government of India from 2000 till 2005.

Sukhatme was awarded the Prince of Wales Gold Medal in 1958 by the Banares Hindu University for topping the University examinations . In 1983, he received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). In 2001, he received the Om Prakash Bhasin Award from Om Prakash Bhasin Foundation and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, the first recipient of the award. A recipient of the degree of the Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) from the Banares Hindu University, Sukhatme was awarded the civilian honour of Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2001.

Suhas Pandurang Sukhatme was born to Indumati Sukhatme and Pandurang Vasudeo Sukhatme, renowned statistician and a Padma Bhushan award winner, on 5 November 1938 at Baroda in the Western Indian state of Maharashtra. He graduated in Engineering in 1958 from the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi and pursued his higher studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He secured a master's degree (SM) in 1960, a higher degree in Engineering (MechE) in 1961, and a doctoral degree (ScD) in 1964.