Gangan Prathap earned his BTech (1974) and PhD (1978) degrees in Aeronautical Engineering from IIT Madras. He worked as Scientist at the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore (1978-2000), Scientist-in-Charge, CSIR Centre for Mathematical Modeling and Computer Simulation at Bangalore (2000-08), as Vice-Chancellor, Cochin University of Science and Technology (2008-09) and Director, National Institute of Science Communication & Information Resource, New Delhi (2009-2013). Presently he is Honorary Professor at the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, Thiruvananthapuram.

Academic and Research Achievements: During his early investigations (1973-78), Gangan Prathap made significant contributions in non-linear structural mechanics. Thereafter, he contributed to the development of finite elements and its applications to problems in computational structural mechanics. During 1992-2000, he contributed to production-run structural analysis for various aircraft projects. He has also contributed to the areas like history and philosophy of science and scientometrics. His latest researches involve proposing quantitative approaches to pressing problems of a sociological nature and Information Science. He has over 400 scientific and technical reports, of which over 100 have appeared in SCI journals. He has also written a book on the finite element method.

Awards and Honours: Dr Prathap was awarded the SS Bhatnagar Prize in 1990. He was elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (1990).