Prof. V. S. Rao

Prof. V. S. Rao is the Vice Chancellor of SRM University – AP. He is an Indian academician and the former President of NIIT University. He was previously the Acting Vice-Chancellor of Birla Institute of Technology and Science, and the Director of the Hyderabad Campus of the BITS-Pilani University. He was responsible for establishing BITS Pilani Hyderabad campus. He is an alumnus of BITS-Pilani and had been associated with the university for more than four decades in various capacities. Prof. Rao began his academic career in 1980 as an Assistant Lecturer at BITS-Pilani, Pilani Campus, Rajasthan. The courses taught by him included Organic Chemistry, Structure and Reactivity of Organic Compounds, Synthetic Organic Chemistry, and Stereo Chemistry and Reaction Mechanisms. In addition to academic responsibilities, he also held offices in administrative capabilities. For more than 41 years he has been doing research in different areas of Chemistry like Natural Products, Chemical and Microbial degradation of Lignin Wastes, Liquid Membrane Phenomena in Drug action, BIOMASS Conversion and Drug Synthesis. He has guided four Ph.D. candidates in the areas of Biogas production from some waste materials and Drug Synthesis. In 2013, he was awarded the Eminent Educationist Award by Indo Global Educational Council. He was also honored by Telugu Association of North America (TANA), USA for contribution to excellence in education in 2013.