Dr. Radhakant Padhi is currently working as the HAG Professor and HAL Chair Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, and as an Associate Faculty at the Centre for Cyber-Physical Systems, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. He also serves as the Honorary Provost of the Centurion University in both of its Odisha and Andhra Pradesh wings, as a Honorary Distinguished Professor at the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, and a member of the academic advisor board of Sarla Birla University, Ranchi, Jharkhand.

Prof. Padhi’s research interest is in optimal and nonlinear control synthesis algorithms and their applications to challenging practical problems in aerospace, biomedical and mechanical engineering. He has co-authored over 290 publications in international journals and conferences, and also a book on Satellite Formation Flying, published in 2021. Two more books are going to be published soon, one on Intelligent Adaptive Control with System Constraints (in 2025) and another on Applied Optimal Control and State Estimation (in 2026). The manuscript for yet another book on Flight Mechanics and Control is being prepared as well. He is also a co-author of the motivational book for young minds “The Gap Year Advantage: Efforts are in your hands, Results are not”, published recently in 2025.

Prof. Padhi’s research is well-supported by Ministry of Education (earlier Ministry of Human Resource Development), Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Dept. of Biotechnology (DBT), Sree Padmavathi Venkateswara Foundation, Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) of USA, Agency for Defence Development (ADD) of South Korea, and a few tech-driven private companies. The innovative nonlinear and optimal guidance and control algorithms developed by Dr. Padhi and his team are received very well across the globe. Currently his research group is passionately involved in (i) Soft-landing of spacecrafts and drones on Earth, Moon and Mars, (ii) Long-duration station-keeping and attitude control of spacecraft, (iii) High-precision pointing control of laser beams, (iv) Dynamic modelling and optimal management of air-traffic, and (v) Robust and intelligent artificial pancreas and smart phone based support systems for diabetic patients.

Prof. Padhi is a Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI), Astronautical Society of India (ASI), Institute of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) and Institute of Engineers India, IE(I). He is an Associate Fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and a Senior Member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). During 2014-2020 he was a member of the Council of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC). He is a member of the Technical Committee on Aerospace in both IEEE and IFAC, and also a vice-chair of the publication board of IFAC. He is the Director of Operations of the Automatic Control and Dynamic Optimization Society of India and has been a past president of it too. He is a life member of Soft Computing Research Society, and Systems Society of India. Currently, he is an Associate Editor of Unmanned Systems journal, and has been the associated editor of two more international journals in the past in the control and automation field