Sathyanarayan Rao, PhD

Curriculum Vitae

Sathyanarayan Rao, PhD

Computational scientist, sixteen years of research across plasma physics, optoelectronics, geoelectrical sensing, crop modelling and microwave remote sensing, in India, Europe and the United States. Currently a research associate at IISc, co-founder of Chakradhari Computational Technologies, and working on scientific AI evaluation.

Download CV (PDF) ORCID Google Scholar

Current

  • Apr 2025 →
    Research Associate
    Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru
  • Oct 2025 →
    Co-Founder & Director
    Chakradhari Computational Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru
  • May 2026 →
    Scientific AI Expert
    Mercor Intelligence

Previously

  • 2026-01–2026-07
    Reviewer & Team Lead, Scientific AI Evaluation
    Turing
  • 2023–2025
    Scientific Programmer
    Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany
  • 2022-09–2023-08
    Research Associate
    Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru
  • 2020–2022
    Independent Research & Development
    India
  • 2016–2020
    Doctoral Researcher, F.R.S.-FNRS eRoot Project
    UCLouvain, Belgium
  • 2015-08–2016-03
    Research Assistant
    Paderborn University, Germany
  • 2013–2014
    Graduate Research Assistant, MS Research
    Alabama A&M University, USA
  • 2010–2013
    Graduate Research Assistant
    University of Alabama in Huntsville, USA

Education

  • 2016–2020
    PhD, Engineering Sciences
    UCLouvain, BelgiumInvestigation of signatures of plant roots from non-invasive geo-electrical measurementsF.R.S.-FNRS eRoot project (T.1088.15)
  • 2013–2014
    MS, Applied Physics
    Alabama A&M University, USA
  • 2010–2012
    MS, Electrical Engineering
    University of Alabama in Huntsville, USAResearch funded by NSF grant ATM0647157
  • 2006–2010
    BE, Electronics & Communication Engineering
    Visvesvaraya Technological University, India

Service

  • Young Hydrologic Society
    Blog Committee member, 2025–present — writing on computational hydrology, environmental modelling and digital twins.
  • Compute Stories
    Creator, 2024–present — explaining computational modelling and scientific ideas on YouTube.
  • Teaching
    Graduate teaching assistant, Physics 101 and 102, Alabama A&M University, 2013–2014.
  • Workshop instructor
    MATLAB workshop on van Genuchten parameter estimation for soil hydraulic modelling, UCLouvain, 2018.
  • Peer review
    Nordic Machine Intelligence, in silico Plants, PeerJ Computer Science, Plant and Soil, Vadose Zone Journal, Agricultural Research, Frontiers in Plant Science

Invited talks

  • 2026
    Sentinel-1 SAR and GPR for subsurface assessment
    KCIRI, Coimbatore
  • 2025
    A computational scientist's view of quantum computing
    Kumaraguru College of Technology

The complete record is in the PDF. Theses: PhD · MS. Earlier versions live in the archive.