Prof. Laxmidhar Behera is the Director of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi, a position he has held since January 2022. He holds the position of senior Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT Kanpur. Prof. Behera earned his B.Sc. (Engg) and M.Sc. (Engg) degrees from the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela, in 1988 and 1990, respectively. He completed his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at IIT Delhi in 1996. He pursued his post-doctoral research in German National Research Centre for Information Technology, Sankt Augustin.
With over 28 years of research and teaching experience, Prof. Behera has made significant contributions to intelligent systems and control, vision-based robotics, warehouse automation, brain-computer interfaces, drone technology, consciousness studies and mental healthcare. He has established industrial collaborations with organizations such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Renault Nissan, and BEL Bangalore. He has successfully executed sponsored research projects of more than 25 Crores. Prof. Behera has supervised 31 Ph.D. students to completion and currently supervising 14 PhD students. He has also supervised more than 70 master's dissertations. He has authored three graduate-level textbooks, and more than 400 publications. He received the prestigious National Systems Gold Medal by the Systems Society of India in 2023. He is a distinguished alumnus of NIT Rourkela. He is a fellow of INAE. He is currently serving as the Associate Editor for IEEE Transaction on SMC: Systems. Besides AI and Robotics.
Prof Behera pursues an active interest in the holistic study of mind, brain and consciousness within the framework of Indian Knowledge Systems. He carries out research work concerning consciousness bio-markers through administration of anaesthesia, quantum perception, quantum brain, therapeutic impact of Indian classical music, mantra and yoga on subjects suffering from mental stress and other kinds of psychic disorders.
Websites:
https://faculty.iitmandi.ac.in/director/
https://www.iitmandi.ac.in/