Shrikant Lele obtained his PhD degree (1967) from the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. His areas of specialization are physical metallurgy and materials science. He was Professor, Department of Metallurgical Engineering, Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.

Academic and Research Achievements: Lele's contribution to structural metallurgy has shown significant progress in the field of faulted close-packed crystals, double hexagonal close-packed alloys, and transformations among close-packed structures and electron diffraction among quasicrystals. He did pioneering work in determining X-ray diffraction effects from defect structures. He has done, for the first time, an analysis of dislocation reactions in the four-layer double hexagonal close-packed (dhcp) structures. Another major contribution, Lele has made, is the unique application of diffraction methods to study the solid-state transformations among the small-period modifications of SiC (2H to 6H and 3C to 6H). This involved the evolution of the concept of non-random fault distributions as well as development of suitable mathematical techniques. He has also developed the RAS (Regular Associated Solution) model to yield parameters from values of activity coefficients at infinite solutions.

Other Contributions: Lele has served as an INSA Council Member (1992).

Awards and Honours: Lele received National Metallurgist's Day Award (1984) and SS Bhatnagar Prize (1987). He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore and the Life Member of Indian Institute of Metals and Electron Microscope Society of India.