M. R. S. Rao Biography 
M. R. S. Rao is an Indian scientist from Mysore. He formerly served as the President of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore for a decade during the period, 2003-2013. He is best known for his research works related to Chromatin Biology and Cancer Biology. For his overall contributions towards the field of science, he has been honoured with fourth civilian honour Padma Shri by government of India in 2010. He is the first scientist to initiate Chromatin Biology research in India, and he has been continuing his researches in this field for the past 30 years.
Manchanahalli Rangaswamy Satyanarayana Rao, better known as M. R. S. Rao hails from Mysore. He completed his graduation and post-graduation in science from Bangalore University in the second half of 1960s. Later he received his PhD in biochemistry from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore in 1973. It was followed by his postdoctoral research at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas for next three years. After completing his studies he joined the institute as Assistant Professor, and worked for a while before he returned back to India. He is married to Padma S. Rao, and both their sons are engineers.
He joined Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science, and continued with his research works. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1987 and Professor in 1991. Currently he is an honorary professor at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, and also runs Chromatin Biology lab. Over the years he has guided numerous PhD students, Postdoctoral fellows and hundreds of research trainees. He has formerly served as the Chairman of Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram.
Published: January 05, 2020
Updated: January 05, 2020
