
Madhavi Latha Gali is a HAG Professor of Civil Engineering and the Chair of Centre for Sustainable Technologies at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. She is a fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering. She was born to a farming couple in a small village in India. She was the first engineer from her village. She did her Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Technology Madras. She joined the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in 2003 as the first female faculty member of its more than 50-year-old Department of Civil Engineering. Her research interests include sustainable soil reinforcement, geomechanics from micro to macro, 3D printing and rock engineering. She is the geotechnical consultant to the world’s highest railway bridge constructed across river Chenab in Jammu, India. She is the first recipient of the Best woman researcher in Geotechnical Engineering award of the Indian Geotechnical Society. She received several prestigious awards including the Vishwakarma award of Hindu Research Foundation, Distinguished alumnus award of the National Institute of Technology Warangal, Teacher Extraordinaire award by the Builders Association of India and Prof. S. K. Chatterjee outstanding researcher award of IISc. She is an elected executive member of the Indian Geotechnical Society for terms 2023-2024 and 2025-2026. She is a nominated member of ISSMGE TC 307 on Sustainability, TC 105 on Geomechanics from micro to macro and TC on Soil reinforcement of the International Geosynthetics Society. She was the Editor-in-chief of the Indian Geotechnical Journal during 2016-2022 and was primarily responsible for the first impact factor of the journal. She is currently an Associate Editor of Geotextiles and Geomembranes, Journal of materials in Civil Engineering, Journal of The Institution of Engineers (India): Series A and International Journal of Geosynthetics and Ground Engineering. She is listed in the top 75 women in STEAM of India.