Prof. Rao’s work is recognized with many awards and honors in the country and abroad. He is a recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Engineering Sciences in 2005 and the Infosys Prize in 2013. Dr. Rao also received the Swarnajayanti Fellowship award from the Department of Science & Technology, IBM Faculty award, Best Research award from the Intel Asia Academic Forum, TechnoMentor award from the Indian Semiconductor Association, DAE-SRC Outstanding Research Investigator award, NASI-Reliance Platinum Jubilee award, J.C.Bose National Fellowship, Prof. C.N.R.Rao National Nanoscience award, VASVIK Award and the Excellence in Research Award from IIT Bombay. Prof. Rao was an Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices during 2003-2012 for the CMOS Devices and Technology area and currently serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of ACS Nano Letters, a leading international journal in the area of Nanotechnology. He is a Distinguished Lecturer, IEEE Electron Devices Society and interacts closely with many semiconductor industries both in India and abroad.

Dr. Rao served as the Chairman, IEEE AP/ED Bombay Chapter and as a Vice-Chairman, IEEE Asia Pacific Regions/Chapters sub-committee for two terms. He was the first elected Chairman for the India section, American Nano Society during 2013-2015.