Prof. Dr. M. Vijayan, INSA Albert Einstein Professor at IISc, is an internationally acclaimed structural biologist, and macromolecular crystallographer, working in the area of structure of proteins, structure and carbohydrate specificity of lectins, protein hydration, mycobacterial proteins, chemical evolution and origin of life. He was instrumental in the development of structural biology research in India, thus gloriously perpetuating the legacy of Prof. G. N. Ramachandran. He was awarded Padma Shri and he was the President of the Indian National Science Academy. He was awarded a Master’s degree by University of Allahabad in Physics and a Doctorate in X-ray Crystallography by IISc. He was a post-doctoral fellow in Prof. Dorothy Hodgkin’s research group at University of Oxford, working on the x-ray diffraction studies of insulin crystals.  Under his leadership, a national programme on the structural biology of microbial pathogens was initiated, focusing on mycobacterial proteins, especially in relation to TB.

At IISC, which he joined in 1971, he rose to become Professor and Chairman of Molecular Biophysics Unit, Chairman of Division of Biological Sciences, Associate Director of IISc and later served as a DBT Distinguished Biotechnologist and subsequently as a DAE Homi Bhabha Professor. He has been a member of the International Union of Crystallography, the International Union of Pure & Applied Biophysics, International Council for Science, the Inter Academy Panel, the Inter Academy Council, the President of the Asian Crystallographic Association, the Founder President of the Indian Crystallographic Association, the President of the Society of Biological Chemists, India and the President of the Indian Biophysical Society. He is a Fellow of the three national science academies of India, Honorary Fellow of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, and the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World.

He has been a Hon. Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore. He has won a multitude of honors, awards and prizes, which include the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, GN Ramachandran Medal by INSA, Alumni Award, IISc, FICCI Award  Life Sci., Ranbaxy Res. Award, Om Prakash Bhasin Award, KS Krishnan Memorial Lecture by INSA, JL Nehru Birth Centen. Award by Indian Science Congress Assoc., Distinguished Biotechnologist Award by DBT; Goyal Prize, first CSIR/Science Congress GN Ramachandran Award for Excellence in Biological Science and Technology, Distinguished Alumni Award, Lakshmipat Singhania-IIM Lucknow, National Leadership Award for Science and Technology-Leader, 2009 and the Kerala Sasthrapuraskaram-2012. He has been the Chairman or member of numerous academic, research and governmental bodies. He has published more than 300 refereed research publications in international journal and has mentored nearly fifty doctoral and thirty post doctoral researchers.