Prof. A. K. Rao's website

Prof. A. K. Rao's Obituary

Prof. A. K. Rao (1929 – 2005)

Prof. A. K. Rao, a scientist and Aerospace engineer of international repute died in Hyderabad, India, of a heart attack on December 10th, 2005. Since retirement in 1998, Prof. Rao has spent his time between his homes in India and Palo Alto, Ca.

Prof. Rao, known to some as Kamesh, graduated at the top of the Andhra University, attended the Benares Hindu University for his undergraduate degrees in ME and EE, the Indian Institute of Science for his graduate degree in Aerospace Engineering and the Imperial College of Engineering, London, for his Ph.D. in Aerospace Structures. He was recognized by his peers internationally with several awards including the Watumull Fellowship for Distinguished Service to post-Independent India, the Leverhulme Fellowship and Fellowships of Indian Scientific Academies such as the Aero Society of India and the National Engineering Society and of International Academies including the Royal Aeronautical Society.

After a stint in England, working on structural problems on the famous Gnat fighter at Folland Aircraft, he returned to India driven by a desire to build modern India. He was the youngest Full Professor and then Dean of Engineering at his alma mater -- the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He graduated over 25 PhD students -- who have gone on lead many of India's Aerospace and Space programs, taught the next generation of students, and built commercial products around the world. He then served as the Director of the Engineering Staff College of India, developing courses for professionals in industry. Previously, he served as a consultant to Lockheed Aircraft, Boeing Aircraft and the NASA at a time when few Indians working in India were invited to do so. The Lockheed International Research Institute he setup at the IISc in the early 1980's presaged what we see today in Bangalore. He firmly believed, and proved with his work and that of his team, that India could do world quality work with Indian facilities on an Indian budget. Towards this end, he brought Finite Element Methods and Acoustic Emission methods to India.

A strategic thinker, a master planner, a whiz with numbers and generous to a fault, Rao loved to mentor people, especially youngsters. From mathematics to engineering to people to stocks, his versatile mind voraciously consumed, processed and registered information.