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UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla has been elected as a foreign fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, a prestigious honor recognizing his seminal contributions in robotics, embedded software and cybersecurity. His election, effective Jan. 1, 2025, acknowledges his pivotal role in shaping global research and technological advancements in these fields, including his foundational work to establish the algorithms now widely used in commercial robots and surgical technologies.
“I am deeply honored and humbled to be elected as a foreign fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, joining an esteemed group of scientists and innovators from my native country,” said Khosla. “This recognition not only reflects my own journey, but also highlights the importance of fostering international collaboration and the exchange of knowledge. By working together across borders, we can drive scientific advancements that benefit communities around the world.”
Chancellor Khosla’s research has made a significant impact, particularly in design, sensor-based control and software for robotic systems and surgical instruments. During his 18-year tenure at Carnegie Mellon University, he pioneered the concept of intelligent instruments for microsurgery that can learn and cancel out a surgeon’s hand tremor.
His contributions include the CMU Direct Drive Arm II, the first direct drive manipulator in the SCARA configuration; the Reconfigurable Modular Manipulator System (RMMS); and the Millibots, a distributed robotic system. Additionally, his work on reconfigurable and modular robots led to commercial systems that were adopted as testbeds for research by the Department of Energy and NASA.
Khosla was also part of the early group at Carnegie Mellon that developed Micron, an intelligent microsurgical instrument designed to improve precision in eye surgery, which is currently undergoing field trials. Another of his projects, known as CHIMERA, demonstrated one of the first open-architecture controllers for robotics and machine tool control. This work influenced the development of standards for open controllers, with several key concepts now becoming standard features in real-time operating systems used in commercial robotics and embedded control applications.
Khosla earned a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, India, and a master’s and Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon. Throughout his career, he has held key leadership roles, including serving as a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he oversaw a $50 million research portfolio and led efforts that resulted in significant advances in robotics, real-time planning and the control of distributed robots and manufacturing systems.
Before becoming the eighth Chancellor of UC San Diego in 2012, Khosla served as Dean of the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon, where he was instrumental in advancing research initiatives and establishing international partnerships with countries such as Japan, Korea, Portugal, China and Rwanda. He also made substantial contributions to engineering education, proposing an innovative curriculum to teach engineering to freshmen and co-authoring a textbook for introductory courses—a model now adopted by several leading universities.
Since assuming leadership of UC San Diego, Khosla has guided the university through unprecedented growth, solidifying its position as one of the top 20 research universities in the world. Under his leadership, UC San Diego has seen its student population grow to over 43,000 students and an expansion of its research budget to $1.73 billion in FY 2024. His vision of UC San Diego as a destination public university that is student centered, research driven, patient dedicated and service oriented has been supported by the first-ever strategic plan and a $3 billion fundraising campaign, which surpassed its goal by $1 billion in 2022.
Khosla’s contributions have been recognized by many prestigious institutions. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors, the Indian National Academy of Engineering and the Indian Academy of Science, among others. He has co-authored three books and more than 350 scholarly articles, contributing significantly to academic research in his areas of expertise.
Founded in 1935, the Indian National Science Academy aims to promote science in India, harness scientific knowledge for national welfare and interface Indian scientists with the global scientific community. The academy plays a critical role in identifying and nurturing scientific talent in India and represents Indian science on the global stage. Khosla is one of six foreign fellows elected in 2024.
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