Subra Suresh

Subra Suresh became the ninth president of Carnegie Mellon University on July 1, 2013. Nominated by the President of the United States and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Suresh served as director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 2010 to 2013. His many accomplishments at NSF included the creation of the Innovation Corps, the Global Research Council, and Science Across Virtual Institutes program. Prior to NSF, Suresh was Dean and Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His pioneering research into the properties of engineered and biological materials, published in more than 300 research articles, 21 patents and three books, has shaped many disciplines at the intersections of engineering, sciences and medicine. In recognition of his accomplishments, Dr. Suresh has been elected to 14 academies including the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine. He is the only university president, one of only 16 living Americans, the first Carnegie Mellon faculty member and the only Pennsylvanian to be elected to all three branches of the U.S. National Academies. He has been awarded ten honorary doctorate degrees from institutions in U.S., Europe and Asia, and the 2013 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science from the Franklin Institute. He received the Padma Shri award, one of the highest civilian honors, from the President of India in 2011.