Board Members

Elected 2023

Subra Suresh is President of the Global Learning Council, a cross-sector innovation platform, established as a Council of the Villars Institute in Switzerland and committed to advancing the use of technology to improve the outcomes for learners. He is also the Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Brown University Professor at Large, a Member of the Board of Governors of the New York Academy of Sciences, and a Member of the Board of Overseers of Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey. He is the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Société Générale Group, a financial institution headquartered in Paris, and an Independent Director of the Corporate Boards of HP Inc. (HPQ) and of the Singapore Exchange (SGX). Previously, he was Director of the US National Science Foundation (NSF), a position to which he was nominated by the President of the United States and unanimously confirmed by the US Senate. He has also served as the President of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and of Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, following successful tenure as Dean of Engineering at MIT and Professor of Engineering at Brown University. He has held appointments at Caltech as the Gordon Moore Scholar (2004) and the Clark B. Millikan Visiting Professor (1999-2000).

Suresh is amongst a rare group of Americans elected to all three US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in recognition of his pioneering research into the properties of engineered and biological materials, and into their implications for technologies and human diseases. He has also been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Inventors, and a foreign member of major academies in China, France, Germany, India, Spain, and Sweden. Prof Suresh has authored three books, over 300 research articles and 30 patent applications.

Suresh was awarded the National Medal of Science, the highest honor for a scientist or engineer in the US, by President Biden in a ceremony at the White House on 24 October 2023 with the citation: "For pioneering research across engineering, physical sciences, and life sciences. A transformative educator, he has advanced the study of material science and its application to other disciplines, and his commitment to research and collaboration across borders has demonstrated how science can forge understanding and cooperation among people and nations."

Suresh has been awarded 20 honorary doctorates from prestigious academic institutions around the world. His many honors include: the Légion d'Honneur, the highest decoration awarded by the Republic of France; the Padma Shri, one of the highest civilian awards, from the President of India on Republic Day; the Benjamin Franklin Medal from the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia; the FEMS Medal from the Federation of European Materials Societies (the first non-European selected to receive this honor from the Federation); the IRI Medal from the Industrial Research Interchange that "recognizes and honors leaders of technology for their outstanding accomplishments in technological innovation which contribute broadly to the development of industry"; and the ASME Medal, the Timoshenko Medal and the Nadai Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

The Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program which Suresh designed and created while serving as NSF is now regarded as one of the most impactful initiatives for translating scientific discoveries into commercial practice. It has been replicated by the National Institutes of Health, the US Department of Energy, and the US Department of Defense, and many organizations abroad including institutions in Singapore, Norway, Ireland, and India. The Global Research Council (GRC) which he founded in 2012 has now become a key annual forum for interactions among the leaders of major research funding agencies from about 50 countries. During his tenure as an academic leader at MIT, he played a pivotal role in establishing the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Center.

As president of CMU, Suresh launched the largest infrastructure development initiative in decades that created the new Tepper Quadrangle and the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. He also established the Presidential Scholarships and Presidential Fellowships for undergraduate and postgraduate students, respectively, with more than $250 million in endowed funds.

As president of Singapore's NTU, he oversaw the establishment of major new Corporate and Joint Laboratories with leading industry partners. During his tenure as President, NTU achieved successive years of record research funding, and the doubling of NTU research publications in the most impactful international journals. As part of its NTU 2025 Strategic Plan, he led efforts in creating a sustainability manifesto with NTU becoming the first academic entity in the world to issue sustainability-linked public bonds along with the commitment to achieve 100% Green Mark Platinum certification for all eligible buildings on its 500-acre (200-hectare) main campus, and carbon neutrality by 2035.

Suresh has previously served as a member of the Board of LORD Corporation (2010), Battelle Memorial Institute (2014-2017), and Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (2018-2022) and National Research Foundation (2018-2022). He has also been a member of the Science, Technology and Innovation Committee of Siemens AG, Germany (2015-2019), the Growth Technology Advisory Board of Applied Materials, Inc., California (since 2020), and the Future Economy Council chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore (2018- 2022).

Standing Committee: Jet Propulsion Laboratory Committee; Finance, Facilities, and Infrastructure