Dr A.V. Rama Rao is the Chairman & Managing Director, Avra Group of Laboratories, Hyderabad. He is an outstanding synthetic organic chemist, Institution builder, Entrepreneur and inventor known for his Pioneering research in the field of drug technology.

He started his career at NCL Pune as a Scientist B (1965) and rose to the position of Head of the Organic Chemistry Division. In 1985, He moved to another CSIR laboratory in Hyderabad as a Director and transformed the Regional Research Laboratory (RRL) into a more globally respected Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT). After retirement as a Director of IICT Hyderabad in 1995, he founded the A. V. Rama Rao Research Foundation, a non-governmental promoting research and doctoral studies in chemistry and Avra Laboratories, a multi-million-dollar pharmaceutical company which currently has over 600 employees.

Born in 1935 at Guntur (presently in Andhra Pradesh), Dr Rao had his early education at his native place. He did B.Sc. (Tech) in 1960 from Bombay University and Ph.D. in 1964 at NCL Pune with Dr. K. Venkataraman. While at NCL, he took his sabbatical to work with Prof E.J. Corey at Harvard University (1975-1977).

During the early part of his stay at NCL, Rama Rao worked on the isolation and structural elucidation of plant and insect pigments, and on synthetic dyes. After his return from Harvard University, his research was marked by fantastic achievements in synthesising biologically active natural products such as antitumor antibiotics, macrolides, immunosuppressants, cyclic peptides, etc., including Vancomycin representing complexity, diversity and aesthetics of modern asymmetric synthesis.

Dr Rama Rao has trained 112 PhD students and published more than 260 papers in international journals. His work has been recognized with several awards, including Padma Shri (1991) and Padma Bhushan (2016). He is a fellow of all science academies in the country and a fellow of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). He is the first Indian to receive the technology award from the TWAS