Subra Suresh
The U.S. Senate recently confirmed Subra Suresh, President Barack Obama’s nominee for director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), for a six-year term.
Suresh, 54, served as dean of the engineering school and as Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A mechanical engineer who later became interested in materials science and biology, Suresh has done pioneering work studying the biomechanics of blood cells under the influence of diseases such as malaria.
From 2000 to 2006, Suresh served as head of the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He joined MIT in 1993 as the R.P. Simmons Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and held joint faculty appointments in the departments of mechanical engineering and biological engineering, as well as the division of health sciences and technology.
Suresh holds a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, a master’s degree from Iowa State University, and an ScD from MIT.
Obama nominated Suresh to become the new NSF director on June 8. He replaces Arden L. Bement Jr., who led the agency from 2004 until he resigned in May.
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