Prof. Rao is an internationally acclaimed Nanoelectronics researcher with over 480 research papers and 50 patents, which include 20 issued US patents. 15 of his patents have been licensed to industries for commercialization. The IP on CMOS-SoC applications developed in his group is now used in 100's of millions of ICs sold all over the world. Prof. Rao is a co-founder of two deep technology startups at IIT Bombay (Nanosniff & Soilsens) which have successful commercial products in the market. Besides his education and research activities, Prof. Rao is also well known for establishing major Nanoelectronics Programmes in the country. For his research accomplishments, Dr. Rao has been elected a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), the Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc), the National Academy of Sciences (NASI) & the Indian National Science Academy (INSA). 52 Ph.D. students have graduated so far under his supervision and are working in leading academic institutions, semiconductor industries all over the world, including in India.

Prof. Rao's research and leadership contributions have been recognized with over 35 awards and honors in the country and abroad. He is a recipient of three honorary doctorates. The recognitions Prof. Rao received include the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Engineering Sciences, Infosys Prize, IEEE EDS Education Award (the highest international award bestowed by IEEE Electron Devices Society for Education) and many others. Prof. Rao serves on the Editorial Advisory Boards of several leading international journals such as the ACS Nano Letters, AIP Applied Physics Reviews, IEEE Journal on Flexible Electronics etc. Dr. Rao has delivered over 200 Plenary, key-note and invited lectures all over the world.