[3] The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 2009, for his contributions to science and technology.
[4] Born in Banki, in the Indian state of Odisha, Rath graduated in Physics and Mathematics from Utkal University in 1955 and shifting his base to the US, he followed it up with a master's degree (MS) from Michigan Technological University in 1958 after which he secured his doctoral degree (PhD) from Illinois Institute of Technology in 1961.
[6] In 1976, he joined the Naval Research Laboratory as the head of the Physical Metallurgy Division[7] where he rose in ranks to become the superintendent of the Materials Science and Technology Division in 1982 and the head of the Materials Science and Component Technology Directorate in 1986, a post he holds to date.
[9] He sits in the planning committee on methane hydrates of the Department of Energy of the Government of India as well as the Indo-US Joint Commission on Science and Technology as the representative of US Navy.
He has also represented the US Navy at The Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP) countries such as UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
[2] Rath, who is married to Sushama,[10] has published several articles and scientific papers,[11][12] co-authored a text, Textbook of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology[13] and has contributed chapters to books written by others.