Tiruppattur Venkatachalamurti Ramakrishnan did his BSc (1959) and MSc (Physics) (1961) from Banaras Hindu University (BHU). He obtained PhD from Columbia University under the mentorship of JM Luttinger while working on the theory of transport properties of metals. He worked at IIT Kanpur as Faculty Member (1966-68) and then did postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Diego (1968-70) on several many-electron phenomena in solids. He rejoined IIT Kanpur in 1970 and continued to work there till 1978, first as Assistant Professor and then as Professor. He spent three years (1978-81) at Princeton University and Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, USA and collaborated with PW Anderson during this period. Thereafter, he joined the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, where an internationally outstanding school of theoretical condensed matter physics was built up and a Centre for Condensed Matter Theory started in 1998. He returned to his alma mater, BHU (2003) as DAE Homi Bhabha Chair Professor, also received DSc (hc) (2004) from the BHU. He is now Emeritus Professor and Hindustan Lever Research Professor of the JNCASR in BHU. He is also a Distinguished Associate, Centre for Condensed Matter Theory, IISc and is associated with the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore..

Academic and Research Achievements: Ramakrishnan is internationally known for his outstanding contributions in condensed matter physics. His made pioneering contributions to the theory of liquid solid transition and density functional approach to the dense classical systems, and onset of electron localization in the disordered electronic systems. The former work, done at IIT Kanpur showed that the crystalline solid can be described in terms of the strong short-range density correlations present in a dense fluid. The latter work was done in Princeton, and is one of the major departures in contemporary condensed matter physics. Both contributions are part of many books. Ramakrishnan's abiding interest is in the phenomena and physics of many electron systems in solids, specially metals. Recent developments include a novel microscopic two Fermi fluid model for manganites and a new general approach to strongly correlated electron systems. He is active in theoretical biology also, the major focus being to understand the nature and significance of noise in gene expression. He has contributed to science education by authoring and editing a national textbook on physics for high school students. His example and advocacy have had a major effect nationally for condensed matter physics..

Awards and Honours: Professor Ramakrishnan was awarded the SS Bhatnagar Prize (1982), Trieste Science Prize (2005), and the Gujar Mal Modi Award (2008). He was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2002. He was elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (1980) and has been its President (2004-06). He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad, Vice President of INSA (2001-02). He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, London, and of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World. Ramakrishnan is a Foreign Member of the Academies des Sciences, Paris..