[1][2] He was presented with The Herdillia award for excellence in basic research in chemical engineering.

[3] Ananth is an alumnus of Alagappa College of Technology, Chennai, where he completed his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering with a gold medal.

[4] His doctoral work at the University of Florida was on molecular thermodynamics, and his advisor was Keith E. Gubbins, a famous British-born internationally renowned scientist, who figures in the list of "hundred great chemical engineers" in America after the post-war years, and who is a distinguished professor at the North Carolina State University, Raleigh.

[5] He was a visiting scientist in the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado (1990–91), in RWTH, Aachen, Germany (summer 1983 and summer 1999) and a visiting thermodynamics expert in Aspen Tech, Massachusetts, US (summer 1991).

[7] He also serves on the boards of companies, including Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited, Neyveli Lignite Corporation and Medlab Asia.