He is the founding Coordinator of DST Thematic Unit of Excellence on Soft Nanofabrication and Chairman of Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering at IIT Kanpur.

[1] He is best known for his pioneering research work in the areas of colloids, thin film, interfaces, adhesion, patterning and in the fabrication and application of self-assembled nano-structures.

[8] He was appointed as the secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India on 9 January 2015 and served there till 31 August 2021.

[10] In 2002, he received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award in engineering sciences for his "original pioneering contribution to the understanding of the behaviour of thin films and other highly confined nanoscale systems".

[12] And in the year of 2010, Infosys Science Foundation have awarded him with Infosys Prize in Engineering and Computer Science for his "scholarly scientific contributions in the broad areas of nanoscale surface pattern evolution, instability, and the dynamics of thin liquid and solid films and soft matter.".