Atluri was recognized for his contributions to computational methods for fracture mechanics and aerospace structures, earning membership in the National Academy of Engineering in 1996.
From 1991 to 1998, he became the director of Federal Aviation Administration National Center for Aircraft Structures, and was appointed as Hightower Chair in Engineering at Georgia Tech from 1996 to 1998.
Since June 2023, he is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Irvine.
He was honored as Faculty Fellow and Eminent Scholar at the Hagler Institute for Advanced Studies at Texas A & M University,[5] and as Distinguished Professor of Multidisciplinary Engineering & Computer Science, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia, from 2013 to the present.
He also received some notable honors including the Nadai Medal,[16] Materials Division in 2012 from American Society of Mechanical Engineers; Aerospace Structures & Materials Award from American Society of Civil Engineers in 1986; Excellence in Aviation Medal from Federal Aviation Administration & Office of Science and Technology Policy in 1998; the Computational Mechanics Medal of Greek National Association of Computational Mechanics in 1998; the Outstanding Achievement Award from National Academy of Engineering in 1995; the Eringen Medal of Society of Engineering Science in 1995;[17] Computational Mechanics Medal from Japan in 1991;[18] Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award (the Highest Award Given to a Faculty Member each year) in 1986, and twice the Outstanding Researcher Award in 1991 and 1993 at Georgia Institute of Technology; Monie Ferst Sustained Research Award of Society of Sigma-Xi in 1988.
In the year of 2001, he was elected as the Distinguished Alumnus of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (IISc).
He was listed in the Roll of Honors in the Aerospace Department at the Indian Institute of Science in 1966[19] (for being the top-ranking student that year), and received the V.K.
In 1986, Atluri founded a scientific association, ICCES: International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering & Sciences.
Atluri is the founder of FSL: A Global Forum on Structural Longevity (Health Management, Failure Prevention, & Infrastructure Rehabilitation).
[34] Five out of the ten most highly cited papers in the journal Computational Mechanics (Springer) from 1985 to 2014 were authored by Atluri.
Six out of the ten most highly cited papers in the journal CMES: Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences from 1999 to 2014 were authored by Atluri.