Manchanahalli Rangaswamy Satyanarayana Rao known by the abbreviation M. R. S. Rao (born 21 January 1948 at

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

, India), is an Indian scientist. He has been awarded the fourth highest civilian award

Padma Shri Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conf ...

in Science and Engineering category (year 2010) by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

. He was the President of

Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research The Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) is a multidisciplinary research institute located at Jakkur, Bangalore, India. It was established by the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India, to ...

(JNCASR) in

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

, India (2003-2013).

Education and personal life

Rao obtained his bachelor's degree (BSc) in 1966 and master's degree (MSc) in 1968 from

Bangalore University Bangalore University (BU) is a public state university located in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. The university is a part of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and affiliated by Univer ...

. He received his PhD in

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

from

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, in the Indian state of Karnataka. The institute was ...

(IISc),

in 1973. Govindarajan Padmanabhan (Former Director, IISc) was his doctoral advisor at Department of Biochemistry. He did his

postdoctoral research A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...

Baylor College of Medicine Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a medical school and research center in Houston, Texas, within the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical center. BCM is composed of four academic components: the School of Medicine, the Graduate S ...

, Houston, Texas, USA, (1974–76) and was as assistant professor at the same institution. He decided to come back to India and joined Department of Biochemistry,

(IISc). At present, he is an Honorary Professor at

(JNCASR),

and actively running Chromatin Biology laboratory. He has been credited as first scientist to initiate Chromatin Biology research in India. In more than 30 years of active research career, his lab at IISc and JNCASR, has mentored more than 35 PhD students, dozens of Postdoctoral fellows and hundreds of research trainees. Rao is married to Padma S. Rao and the couple has two sons, M. S. Sharat and M. S. Rohan, both engineers by profession. The happy family lives in

Professional life

After having his

and short stint of assistant professorship at

, US, he returned to India in 1978 and joined the Department of Biochemistry, IISc as assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 1987 and professor in 1991. He was the chairman of Centre for Genetic Engineering, IISc between 1990 and 1993. For several occasions, he served as visiting professor to

(in 1983 and 1986), Harvard Medical School (1988–90, and again in 1993), Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and University of California at San Diego, USA (1998). In 2003, he accepted the chair of President of

(JNCASR), Jakkur,

. He was the chairperson of Department of Biochemistry, IISc (1998–2003) and Molecular Biology and Genetics Unit (MBGU, JNCASR) between 2005 and 2009. He has served as President of Society of Biological Chemists (India) for two terms between 2000 and 2004. M.R.S. Rao has been associated as a governing body member or as a scientific advisor to several research institutes in India. He is the Ex-Chairman of Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. He was a member of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata, chairman, Research Council of Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, and Member, Selection/Search Committee of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR Directors. He has served as chairperson or expert member of several scientific councils such as Department of Science and Technology (India), Department of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR); Science academies such as Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS), National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI), Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in Trieste, Italy and science policy making committees in

organisations, Institutions and Universities in India. He is also active member of Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) activities. He is the chairperson of Task Force on Human Genetics & Genome Analysis of Department of Biotechnology, (DBT) India. He is member of Governing body of Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB), Bangalore. He is also serving as member of academic council of Poornaprajna Institute of Scientific Research, Bangalore. Rao has been appointed as a member in the newly constituted National Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) which will support innovation, research and development in various sciences in India. He is on the editorial board of several high repute peer-reviewed journals and recently has joined as senior member on the editorial board of American Journal of Cancer Research (AJCR).

Publications

Rao is a prolific scientific researcher and author of hundreds of peer-reviewed international journal articles. Several research articles have been cited extensively throughout the world scientific community. Most of his research work has been focused on Chromatin biology and Cancer biology. Rao has an h-index of above 26 (as per June 2011) and it's still in logarithmic phase and heading up continuously. One of his publication over colon cancer, published in Cell (journal) has extensive citations of more than 2000 so far.

Awards and recognitions

Rao has received several medals, awards and fellowships both in India and overseas. He has been awarded the

(year 2010) by

for his immense contribution in Science and Engineering to the country. He has received the coveted Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (Year 1988) from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Centenary Award from the Indian Council of Medical Research (2005), the Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Lecture award of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), the FICCI Award, the J. C. Bose Medal of INSA, a Rockefeller Foundation Biotechnology Fellowship, the Om Prakash Bhasin Award, the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Medal Lecture Award 2008, the Ranbaxy Science Foundation Award for Basic Medical Sciences, and the Sir M. Visveswaraiah Senior Scientist State award from the Government of Karnataka. He received the Prof. N. Appaji Rao Best Mentor Award, 2011, an award instituted by the Indian Institute of Science Alumni Association (IIScAA), Bangalore. He is a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS), Bangalore; the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Delhi; the National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI), Allahabad; the National Academy of Medical Sciences (FAMS), India; the Third World Academy of Science (TWAS), Trieste, Italy; the American Society for Cell Biology, the American Society for Microbiology, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Human Genome Organization.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rao, M. R. S. 1948 births Living people Recipients of the Padma Shri in science & engineering Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology Bangalore University alumni Indian Institute of Science alumni Academic staff of the Indian Institute of Science Scientists from Bangalore Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences Fellows of The National Academy of Sciences, India Fellows of the National Academy of Medical Sciences 20th-century Indian chemists Scientists from Mysore Indian biochemists Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Biological Science