Former Carnegie Mellon University President Subra Suresh Joins Caltech’s Board of Trustees

Indian American scientist and engineer Subra Suresh has joined the California Institute of Technology’s Board of Trustees. He is currently a professor at large at Brown University and Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also president of the Global Learning Council, an education-focused innovation platform. 

He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the New York Academy of Sciences, a member of the Board of Overseers of Koç University in Istanbul, and a member of the Board of Directors of Singapore Exchange (SGX).

He previously served as the President of Carnegie Mellon University and of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, following positions as dean of engineering at MIT and professor of engineering at Brown University. He was director of the National Science Foundation, where he “designed and created the  Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program, an initiative focused on translating scientific discoveries into commercial applications,” according to a CalTech press release. 

At Carnegie Mellon, “he launched the institution’s largest infrastructure development initiative in decades, leading to the creation of the Tepper Quadrangle and the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship,” CalTech said. He also established the Presidential Scholarships program for undergraduates and the Presidential Fellowships program for graduate students. He has authored three books and more than 300 research articles and has 30 patent applications.

Suresh spent “two sabbaticals at Caltech at different times,” he told CalTech. One was “around 1999 in GALCIT [Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology], and the other in 2004 as the Gordon Moore Scholar,” he said. “One of the things that has always impressed me about Caltech is the impact it has had on new scientific discoveries, innovation, translation of science to industry, start-ups, and leadership in different domains all over the globe, especially given its extremely small size.”

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Last year, he was awarded the National Medal of Science, the highest honor for a scientist or engineer in the United States, by President Biden. Suresh has been elected to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in recognition of his research into the properties of engineered and biological materials and their potential to advance innovation and human health care. He has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors.

Suresh became a faculty member at Brown in 1983 as the youngest member of the engineering faculty. After 10 years at Brown, he went on to eventually become the first Asian-born American to lead the National Science Foundation, serving as its 13th director after he was nominated by then-President Barack Obama. He returned to Brown’s School of Engineering in September 2023.

Suresh has also received the French Legion of Honor, the highest decoration awarded by France; and the Padma Shri, one of the highest civilian awards given by the President of India. Additionally, he is a foreign member of major academies in China, France, Germany, India, Spain, and Sweden.