Gundlapalli Venkata Subba Rao (1940–2017)

Professor Gundlapalli Venkata Subba Rao, popularly known as GVS, an excellent solid state chemist-turned materials scientist, was born 12 December 1940 at Bapatla, Andhra Pradesh. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from S.V. University, Tirupati and his Ph D degree in solid state chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur as one of the earliest students of C. N. R. Rao. GVS then spent nearly three years (1971–74) at the IBM J. Watson Research Centre in New York, USA and later at the Argonne National Laboratory, USA followed by a Humboldt Foundation Fellowship Anorg. Chem. Institut der University Munster and then at University of Bohum, Bohum, West Germany. Subsequently he was invited to take charge of the Materials Research Centre (MSRC) at IIT-Madras, which he developed into an excellent research centre dedicated to materials science. GVS was a pioneer in redefining the field of solid state chemistry. He demanded hard work, creativity and critical thinking from all his students during his tenure at MSRC.