Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood

Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood is the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India (PSA to GoI) from April 2022. He is the Chairperson of the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology & Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC). Prof. Sood is also a National Science Chair Professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore. He was a member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) from 2018 to March 2022 and from 2009 to 2014, he had served as a Member of the Scientific Advisory Council (SAC) to the Prime Minister of India. 

Prof. Sood has a Doctorate in Physics from IISc Bangalore. His research interests include the Physics of Quantum materials as well as Soft and Active matter. He has published more than 495 papers in peer- reviewed journals and holds several patents. 

His work has been recognised by many awards, including the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India. He was President of the Indian National Science Academy (2017-19), President of the Indian Academy of Sciences (2010-12), and Secretary-General, The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), Trieste, Italy (2013-2018). He was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, UK (FRS) in 2015, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) in 2025 and the Australian Academy of Sciences (FAA) in 2026. 

He has received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, the G. D. Birla Award for Scientific Research, the TWAS Prize in Physics, the Millennium Gold Medal of the Indian Science Congress Association, the Sir C. V. Raman Award of the UGC, the Homi Bhabha Medal of the Indian National Science Academy, G. M. Modi Award for Science and Technology, 25th SIES Sri. Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi National Eminence Award in the category of Science & Technology and Asutosh Mookerjee Memorial Life Time Award by Indian Science Congress, among many others. He has been conferred Doctor of Philosophy (Honoris Causa) by many universities. He serves as Associate Editor in a reputed International journal ‘ACS Nano’. 

For details, see www.physics.iisc.ernet.in/~asood/akscv.pdf