Melur K. "Ram" Ramasubramanian
Melur K. “Ram” Ramasubramanian is the Vice President for Research (VPR) at the University of Virginia. As UVA’s Chief Research Officer, Ramasubramanian is responsible for executing a research growth strategy, managing and protecting a $550M UVA research enterprise. Reporting to the president, Ramasubramanian serves on the president’s executive cabinet and contributes to addressing university-wide issues. He oversees various university units that comprise the research infrastructure, including the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), the research development office that facilitates the acquisition of research funding, the licensing and ventures group for research commercialization, the offices for managing regulatory compliance and research safety, integrity, and security, as well as animal welfare, environmental health and safety. He also oversees the Pan-University research institutes, and manages strategic investments in research, and engages with external constituents at the state and federal levels.
Ramasubramanian is a professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UVA. His prior academic appointment includes the department chair and D. W. Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Clemson University (2012-2016), professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (1994-2012) at North Carolina State University. Ramasubramanian was also the program director for the Engineering Research Centers (ERC) program (2016-2017), and the lead program director for the IGERT program (2009-2012) at the National Science Foundation. He has an extensive industry R&D experience working as a research associate at the Georgia Pacific Innovation Institute, Georgia-Pacific Corporation (1987-1994).
He is a dedicated teacher, mentor, and has widely published in peer-reviewed journals, conferences, and book chapters, and patents. He has graduated 10 Ph.D.s as their major advisor and 33 M.S. students and regularly taught courses in solid mechanics, mechatronics, and senior design. His research interests are interdisciplinary that combines the principles of mechanics (solid and fluid) to address problems in design and manufacturing of composite materials as well as those involving biological materials and living tissue. He continues to pursue funded research in the areas of microfluidics and is currently advising a PhD student. He has served on many review panels for agencies, site visiting teams, advisory committees, associate editor of IEEE open access journal, and continues to serve on several boards. He is a member of the executive committee of the council on research of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities, a member of the Senior Research Officers (SRO) group of the Association of American Universities (AAU).
Ramasubramanian graduated from the National Institute of Technology in Durgapur, India, with a B.S. in mechanical engineering; Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, with a M.S. in applied sciences; and Syracuse University with a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering. He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI), the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS).