Speaker Detail

Subra Suresh is director of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). He previously served as dean of the engineering school and the Vannevar Bush professor of engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A mechanical engineer interested in materials science and biology, Suresh pioneered research to understand the mechanical properties of materials, and most recently tackled the biomechanics of red blood cells under the influence of diseases such as malaria. In 2006, Technology Review magazine selected Suresh's work on nanobiomechanics as one of the top 10 emerging technologies that "will have a significant impact on business, medicine or culture."