Krishan Lal obtained his BSc (1959) and MSc (1961) degrees from Meerut College, (Agra University). After a short period as Lecturer and brief stint at Solid State Physics Laboratory, Delhi he joined the National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi in 1963. He obtained his PhD degree (1969) from Delhi University in solid-state physics. He worked at the IBM Watson Research Centre (1971-72) and was Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo, at Technical University, Darmstadt and at PTB, Braunschweig. He was also a Visiting Professor at IIT Delhi and Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He was appointed Director of NPL in 2000, and served till 2003. Presently, he is an Honorary Professor at IIT, Kanpur.

Academic and Research Achievements: Dr Krishan Lal established and led an active research group on crystal growth and study of crystal defects by high-resolution X-ray diffraction techniques. He has made important contributions in the area of lattice imperfections in nearly perfect crystals and crystal growth. His research work has led to breakthroughs in understanding the nature of real materials and their interaction with radiation and external fields. His basic research has helped in establishing the origin of diffuse X-ray scattering from crystals; made it possible to directly observe and characterize effect of external electric fields on real structure of semiconductors and insulators; enabled characterization of effect of processing steps for solid state devices fabrication on substrate materials; and enabled growth of single crystals of unprecedented perfection level. Recently, very low angle boundaries with tilt angles as low as ~15-arc sec have been directly observed and characterized for the first time. He has edited eight books and published more than hundred research papers in refereed journals. He has seven patents to his credit.

Other Contributions: A major inter-laboratory project had been successfully developed by Krishan Lal to prepare Certified Reference Materials. He has made noteworthy contributions in data science. He was elected as the President of ICSU (International Council for Science) Committee on Data for Science & Technology (2006). In his laboratory high quality multi-crystal X-ray diffractometers have been developed with state-of-the-art-level resolution that include a 5-crystal X-ray diffractometer. He was Editor of Zeitschrift fur Kristallographie (1996-2003) and is presently Editor-in-Chief of the Proceedings of the Indian National Science Academy.

Awards and Honours: Krishan Lal obtained Honorary Doctorate from Russian Academy of Sciences (1998). He received SK Mitra Birth Centenary Gold Medal of Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) (2007) and was Member, APAM (1997) and President, International Crystallographic Association (ICA) (2003-07). He is a Fellow of National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad.