Dr Rao, Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Delhi. He obtained his M.Sc (Andhra Univ), M.Tech (IITK) and Ph.D (IITD) in 1978, 80 and 84 respectively. His research spanning over 30 yrs has been on engineering behaviour of rockmass, stability of slopes, underground structures, foundations, site characterization, numerical modeling and seismic microzonation of mega cities. An established teacher, researcher and active consultant,

Dr Rao has supervised 8 Ph.D, 122 M.Tech theses. He is the recipient of IGS-Prof Leonards best Ph.D thesis award and 10 other IGS best paper awards and ISRMTT best research award. A prolific writer,
Prof Rao published 240 technical papers in national and international journals and conferences. Some of his articles are best referred category and included in several text books. He has been the Principal investigator of 10 sponsored research projects and carried out 260 consultancies in the areas of Soil and Rock Mechanics and Engineering Geology.
Prof Rao traveled extensively and has collaborative research with New Castle, Glasgow and Strathclyde universities. He is member of several technical committees (TCs and ATCs, BIS, CSIR, DST) and academic boards. He delivered several keynotes and special lectures in India and abroad and was a guest Editor for “Defence Science Journal”.

Prof Rao designed and developed a  large scale Polyaxial (σ1, σ2, σ3) testing facility and Direct shear apparatus to test rockmass under CNL and CNS loading conditions at IITD.

Prof Rao is the Fellow of Indian Geotechnical Society and contributed extensively to the growth of IGS for more than 25 yrs in various capacities. He was the Honorary Secretary of the IGS for 10 yrs and managed very professionally.

Prof Rao has been the Editor of the IGJ and IGS News. He was the Jt. Organizing Secretary and Organizing Secretary for highly successful 13th ICSMFE, New Delhi (1994) and 13thARC, Kolkata (2008) conferences. He edited 6 vols of 13th ICSMFE and several IGC proceedings.
 
Prof.Rao provided solutions for many projects executed by Delhi Metro, NTPC, NHPC, GMR, GVK, L&T, Power Grid, KRCL, Mott Mec, JP, Gati, Energy Infratech, NWDA, Reliance etc. His recent Geotechnical modeling work for assessing the stability of Chenab bridge abutments has cleared the way for the construction of Jammu – Baramula Rail link of National importance.
Prof. Rao held several key positions including the Director of Engineering Institute and served all with distinction.