Degrees in Ceramic Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle; and PhD (Ceramic Technology) (1957) from the Pennsylvania State University. His doctoral thesis pioneered work on domain effects in ferroelectric ceramic barium titanate.

Dr. Eleswarapu Chinna Subbarao received B.Sc.(Glass Technology) (1949) from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), BS (1952) and MS (1954) degrees in Ceramic Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle; and PhD (Ceramic Technology) (1957) from the Pennsylvania State University. His doctoral thesis pioneered work on domain effects in ferroelectric ceramic barium titanate. He worked at Westinghouse Research Laboratories, Pittsburgh, PA (1956-63). In 1963, he joined IIT Kanpur, worked there as first Head of Metallurgical Engineering Department.; then as Founder-Director, Tata Research Development and Design Centre, Tata Consultancy Services, Pune.

Dr. Subbarao organized the first conference on Materials Science Education in India (1966) and established an interdisciplinary postgraduate programme in materials science at IIT Kanpur, also an Advanced Center of Materials Science, thus ushering in material science education and research in India. He was the first Dean of Faculty at IIT Kanpur and played a pivotal role in assembling world-class faculty at the IIT. He served on the Editorial boards of many national and international journals. He also served as Member, INSA Council (1982-84).

Professor Subbarao received the INSA Prize for Materials Science (1995), National Metallurgists' Award (1970), Homi Bhabha Award in Applied Science (1978), ID Varshnei Memorial Lecture Award (1987), Distinguished Materials Scientist of the Year by MRSI (1991), NP Gandhi Memorial Lecture Award (1995), Distinguished Alumnus of the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (1998), and Honorary Fellow of IIT Kanpur (2006). He was elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, Indian National Academy of Engineering and the International Academy of Ceramics.