"Rao also received honorary doctorates from many universities across the world, including Bordeaux, Colorado, Khartoum, Liverpool, Northwestern, Novosibirsk, Oxford, Stellenbosch, Universite Joseph Fourier, Wales, Wroclaw and Notre Dame in the Netherlands," Chandra recalled.
Chandra also spoke of how other members of Rao's family have contributed to science -- Rao's wife Indumathi Rao works at JNCASR in an honorary capacity for the promotion of science while his son Sanjay Rao is engaged in popularising science in Bangalore's schools. His daughter Suchitra is married to K.M. Ganesh, the director of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) at Pune, Maharashtra.
After serving 13 years at IIT-Kanpur till 1976, Rao became a visiting professor at Purdue University, University of Oxford and University of Cambridge in Britain and University of California in the US during the 1980s.
Rao returned to Bangalore and joined the IISc in 1989 and was one of the longest serving directors till 2001.
