Dr VS Arunachalam Memorial Lecture 2026

The VS Arunachalam Memorial Lecture is an initiative to honour the legacy of Dr Arunachalam by connecting thought leaders in the scientific arena to public policy practitioners. The memorial lecture aims to bring together thought leaders, innovators, and change makers from across the globe to foster interdisciplinary collaboration to help address pressing local and global challenges from different fields.

This year’s lecture will be delivered by Prof V Ramgopal Rao. He is currently the Group Vice-Chancellor of the BITS Pilani Institutions. Before joining BITS Pilani in 2023, he served as Director of IIT Delhi (2016–2021) and held the position of Chair Professor of Nanoelectronics at IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi.

Prof Rao will speak on the topic ‘Building India’s Technological Capability: The Role of Universities‘. Drawing on his experience at IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, and now BITS Pilani, he will discuss what this means for how we educate students and support faculty and young entrepreneurs in taking promising ideas from the laboratory to those who can put them to use.