M.R.S. Rao birthday: All you need to know about the Padma Shri winning Indian scientist

Indian scientist Manchanahalli Rangaswamy Satyanarayana Rao better known as M. R. S. Rao was born on January 21.

He was awarded the fourth highest civilian award Padma Shri in Science and Engineering category in the year 2010 by the Government of India.

For several occasions, he served as visiting professor to Baylor College of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and University of California at San Diego, US.

Professional life

Rao returned to India in 1978 after a brief stint in the US where he was an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine.

Between 1990–93, whilst in India, he became the chairman of Centre for Genetic Engineering. In 2003, he accepted the chair of President of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore. 

He has also served as the chairperson of Department of Biochemistry, IISc (1998–2003) and Molecular Biology and Genetics Unit (MBGU, JNCASR) between 2005–09. He has served as President of Society of Biological Chemists (India) for two terms between 2000–04.

In addition to the Padma Shri, Rao has received several other awards including the coveted Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in 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 J. C. Bose Medal of INSA, a Rockefeller Foundation Biotechnology Fellowship, the Om Prakash Bhasin Award, among others.

Publications

Rao is a prolific author who has written hundreds of peer reviewed international journal articles. Most of his work has been focused on Chromatin biology and Cancer biology.

One of his publication over colon cancer, published in Cell (journal) has over 2000 citations so far.

Published on: Friday, January 20, 2023, 03:36 PM IST