Dr. Radhakant Padhi is currently working as a Professor in the Department of Aerospace engineering and Centre for Cyber-Physical Systems, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. After doing his Ph.D. and Postdoc in the US, he joined IISc Bangalore as a faculty in December 2003 and is continuing over there since then. With due official permission from IISc, he has assumed the charge of being the Honorary Provost of Centurion Universities since Aug 2020.
He was a scientist in RCI (DRDO), Hyderabad, for a brief period during 1996-1997.
Dr. Padhi is a Fellow of INAE, IE, and IETE. He is an Associate Fellow of AIAA and a Senior Member of IEEE. He is a member of the Technical Committee on Aerospace in both IEEE and IFAC and a vice-chair of the publication board of IFAC. Currently he is a member of the Board of Governors of IEEE Control system society. He is the Director of Operations of the Automatic Control and Dynamic Optimization Society of India (has been a past president of it too), and also a Steering committee member of the Asian Control Association. He is a life member of Soft Computing Research Society, Aeronautical Society of India, and Systems Society of India. He is an Associate Editor of three international journals in the control and automation field.
Dr. Padhi’s research interest is on optimal and nonlinear control synthesis algorithms and their applications to challenging practical problems in aerospace, biomedical and mechanical engineering. He has co-authored over 250 publications in international journals and conferences, and a book on Satellite Formation Flying. His research is well-supported by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) of USA, Agency for Defence Development of South Korea etc. He is a member of the technical review committee in DRDO and ISRO for several challenging projects and has also contributed substantially by carrying out intensive collaborative research with both the organizations. The innovative nonlinear and optimal guidance and control algorithms developed by Dr. Padhi and his team are received well across the globe. Currently his research group is passionately involved in developing an Artificial pancreas system for Type-1 diabetic patients of India and also for Dynamic modelling and optimal management of air-traffic over the Indian airspace – both of these projects are sponsored by the IMPRINT (IMPacting Research INnovation and Technology) initiative of MHRD, Govt. of India.