Jayaram Chengalur is the Director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.  He has a B. Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from Cornell University. Following a postdoctoral position at the Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy, he joined the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (NCRA-TIFR) in 1996 where he worked with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope.   

Chengalur’s research interests include studies of the interstellar medium in our galaxy and external galaxies, the evolution over cosmic time of the gas content of galaxies, and radio astronomy related software and instrumentation. He is a fellow of the Indian Academy of Science, the National Academy of Sciences India and the Indian National Science Academy.