Royal Society honour for Indian expert at Cambridge

Vikram Deshpande, who graduated from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and moved to complete a PhD at the University of Cambridge and was appointed professor of engineering there, has been honoured by the Royal Society with a fellowship.

Deshpande is among 62 new fellows selected for life on Wednesday through a peer-review process. Past fellows include Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Dorothy Hodgkin and Stephen Hawking. Fellows are chosen for their exceptional contributions to scientific understanding.

Deshpande is credited with significant contributions in fields ranging from the design of micro-architectured stuff to creating soft and active materials. His innovations have helped define the modern frontiers of solid mechanics.

“Vikram’s ability to combine theoretical knowledge with insightful experiments has had a major impact in materials engineering. He is the recipient of several awards including the 2020 Rodney Hill Prize in Solid Mechanics, the 2018 Sir William Hopkins Prize in Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and the Philip Leverhulme Prize”, the Royal Society said.

Venki Ramakrishnan, president of the society, added, “At this time of global crisis, the importance of scientific thinking, and the medicines, technologies and insights it delivers, has never been clearer”.

The new colleagues include Ramamoorthy Ramesh, the Purnendu Chatterjee Chair and Professor of Physics, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley; and Ralf Speth, CEO of the Tata-owned Jaguar land Rover.