G Sundararajan obtained BTech (Metallurgy) (1976) from IIT Madras, and MS (1979) and PhD (1981) degrees from Ohio State University. Thereafter he joined Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) as Scientist "C" (1982), rose to the level of Scientist "F" (1994), and was later appointed as Director, International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), DST (1997- ).

Academic and Research Achievements: While being at DMRL and ARCI, Dr Sundararajan made outstanding contributions to the areas of tribological behaviour (erosion, sliding wear, abrasion) of metallic materials, composites and coatings, high temperature deformation and fracture behaviour of superalloys and other materials, laser surface modification (surface alloying cladding, transformation hardening) and laser materials processing (cutting, drilling and welding) of engineering materials, development of thermal spray coatings, and development of novel coating technologies like detonation spray coating, electro spark coating, microarc oxidation coating, cold spray coating and EB-PVD coating technology. He has published more than 200 papers in refereed international journals and conference proceedings. He has mentored two scientists for obtaining their MS and supervised 16 scientists for PhD (including ongoing).

Other Contributions: Dr Sundararajan is responsible for establishing the Center for Laser Processing of Materials (now a part of ARCI), the Surface Engineering Division at ARCI, the Center for Fuel Cell Technology at Chennai, and the Centre for Sol-Gel Nanocomposite Coatings at ARCI. As Director, ARCI, he made notable contributions to the development, demonstration and commercialization of materials-based technologies.

Awards and Honours: Dr Sundararajan was conferred the SS Bhatnagar prize (1994), Best Metallurgist Award (1995), FICCI Award for Materials Science (2004), GD Birla Gold Medal (2005), JC Bose Fellowship (2006), and INSA Prize for Materials Science (2007). He was elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences (1992), Indian National Academy of Engineering (1999), Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Sciences (1999), National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad (2002), Indian Institute of Metals (2002), American Society for Materials (2005) and The American Ceramic Society (2012). He is currently the President of Materials Research Society of India (MRSI) and also Vice President of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore.