Ask Professor G.S. Krishnaswamy which of his ninety-six publications matters most and he will likely change the subject to his students — forty-eight doctoral candidates, by his own count, now populating India's leading research institutions, a lineage he considers more durable than any single paper. Thirty-two years of research at the intersection of structural materials and quantum mechanics have nonetheless produced a citation count exceeding 12,000, eighteen granted patents, and India's highest scientific honour.

He completed B.Tech — Metallurgical Engineering at IIT Bombay (1985) — 🏅 President of India Gold Medal. 1st in all of India..

His foundational research — begun in his doctoral work at MIT — examines the physics of crystalline defects and their engineering implications, work that has since expanded into high-temperature aerospace alloys, lightweight automotive structural materials, and, most recently, materials for solid-state battery electrodes.

The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize he received in 2006 was the first formal recognition of a career whose significance was already clear within the field; the Padma Bhushan followed in 2020. He was Director of the National Chemical Laboratory from 2014 to 2018, where he oversaw a ₹320 crore infrastructure expansion, before returning to IISc to lead the Centre for Advanced Materials.

He currently chairs the Materials Science panel of the Department of Science and Technology and holds fellowships at the Indian National Science Academy and the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Distinguished Professor & Director, CiPS IISc; Chair, Materials Science Panel, DST; and Member, Scientific Advisory Council to the Cabinet.

Structural Materials & Defect Physics; Energy Materials; and Advanced Manufacturing.