Padma Shri awardee and former President of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) Prof. M.R. Satyanarayana Rao passed away at his residence in Tata Nagar in Bengaluru on August 13 night. He was 75.
Prof. Rao, who is survived by his mother, wife and two sons, suffered a cardiac arrest. Born in Mysuru, Prof Rao obtained his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from Bangalore University. He got his PhD from the Indian Institute of Science and did his Postdoctoral Research at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.
Prof. Rao’s area of expertise was in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
During his long professional career, he served as Assistant Professor at Baylor College of Medicine, Chairman, Centre for Genetic Engineering and Department of Biochemistry, IISc. He was also a visiting Professor at the Harvard Medical School and Visiting Scientist at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University of California at San Diego, USA.
At JNCASR, he was associated with the Chromatin Biology Laboratory. He was president of the JNCASR for a decade between 2003 and 2013, post this, he served as Honorary Professor at the institute. He was also a member, Karnataka Knowledge Commission between 2014 and 2017. Prof. Rao received various awards and honours; he received the Padma Shri from the Govt. of India in 2010.
The cremation will take place on August 15 in Bengaluru.
