Prof. Krishnan Balasubramaniam is a distinguished Institute Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Madras, and currently leading the Centre for Non-destructive Evaluation since its founding in 2001. He also is the Faculty in Charge of Gopalakrishnan Deshpande Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Accenture Center for Product X and the Center for Advanced Automotive Research. He also served as the Dean, Industrial Consulting and Sponsored Research at IIT Madras between 2012-18. With over 40 years of experience in Non-destructive evaluation, his work spans maintenance, quality assurance, manufacturing, and design. Having guided numerous Ph.D. and M.S. students, he has received notable awards such as the Roy Sharpe Prize (UK), ISTEM Entrepreneurial Faculty Member Award (USA), National NDT Award, DRDO Academy Excellence Award, Abdul Kalam National Technology Innovation Fellowship, Distinguished Alumni Award from NIT Tiruchirappalli and a Lifetime Achievement Award from IIT Madras. Actively engaged in innovation, he is instrumental in incubating 10 startups that employ more than 1100 professionals and operate across 12 countries.
