Dr. Subra Suresh is a preeminent materials scientist and academic leader currently serving as Professor at Large at Brown University, returning to the institution where he began his distinguished faculty career in 1983. He previously held transformative leadership roles as President of Nanyang Technological University Singapore from 2018 to 2022 and as the ninth President of Carnegie Mellon University from 2013 to 2017. His academic journey commenced at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras before he completed both his master's and doctoral degrees in Mechanical Engineering at MIT with remarkable efficiency, earning his PhD in just two years. Prior to his university presidencies, Suresh served as Director of the U.S. National Science Foundation from 2010 to 2013 and as Dean of the School of Engineering and Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering at MIT from 2007 to 2010.
Suresh's pioneering research bridges materials science, mechanical engineering, and biology with groundbreaking investigations into the mechanical properties of biological cells and their relationship to human disease states. His seminal contributions include fundamental studies on material fatigue, nano-biomechanics of cancer cells, and the behavior of blood cells in diseases such as malaria, establishing vital connections between nano-mechanical processes at the cellular level and human health conditions. As NSF Director, he conceived and launched the Innovation Corps I-Corps program in 2011 which has become one of the most successful initiatives for translating scientific research into impactful innovations, supporting over 1,200 innovation teams from 248 universities and leading to the creation of more than 577 companies within its first six years. His scholarly output includes several hundred research articles, three widely adopted textbooks including Fatigue of Materials which became an authoritative reference, 30 patent applications, and a technology start-up demonstrating his commitment to both theoretical advancement and practical application.
Suresh's exceptional contributions have earned him the rare distinction of election to all three branches of the US National Academies Engineering Sciences and Medicine making him one of a very small group of Americans with this honor and the first university president to achieve this distinction. In recognition of his lifetime achievements he was awarded the National Medal of Science the highest honor accorded to a US scientist by President Biden in October 2023 cementing his legacy as one of America's most influential scientific leaders. He continues to shape global research policy through his role as Chairman of Société Générale's Scientific Advisory Council and as a member of the Caltech Board of Trustees applying his interdisciplinary expertise to bridge science technology and societal needs. As Professor at Large at Brown University Suresh remains actively engaged in advancing the understanding of materials science while mentoring the next generation of researchers to tackle complex interdisciplinary challenges at the intersection of engineering biology and medicine.
