Professor M. N. Sudheendra Rao, a doctorate in Chemistry from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in 1976 and a Professor at Indian Institute of Technology Madras has assumed the charge of Principal / Director of SDM College of Engineering and Technology, Dharwad on 14th November 2007. Professor Rao (born on December 10, 1950 in Davanagere, Karnataka) had his earlier education from Bangalore University and visited Germany (University of Frankfurt) and Canada (University of New Brunswick and University of Calgary) for post-doctoral experience. Prof. Rao has served Indian Institute of Technology Madras since 1983 in various capacities and has built a reflective career as a Teacher, Researcher and an Administrator.

As an academician, he has widely traveled both in India and Abroad and possesses a number of academic distinctions to his credit like, AvH Fellow (Germany), JSPS Fellow (JAPAN), Visiting Scientist – CANADA, Visiting Professor – JAPAN. He has been an enthusiastic and active representative of both his institution and country during his trips abroad. Dr. Rao in nearly nine years of stay away from India has visited many countries for research, teaching and attending conferences.

He has served many academic institutions, technical institutes and universities in various capacities, especially in both development and implementation of undergraduate and post-graduate programs. He has guided students for Ph.D. theses (10 so far) and Dissertations of Master’s program (18 so far) at IIT Madras. Six Post-doctoral fellows and several project staff have also worked in his group. A variety of government agencies (DST, CSIR, BRNS,) and Industries have funded his research endeavors at IITM.  Prof. Rao has to his credit over eighty publications in international and national journals and an equal number of papers presented in national and international conferences and symposia. He is a regular and sought after speaker in conferences, symposia, workshops and other special academic events and as a Resource Person in Refresher Course Programs for college and university Teachers.