COLUMBUS, Ohio (Diya TV) — Ravi V. Bellamkonda will become the 18th president of The Ohio State University after the university’s Board of Trustees approved his appointment on March 12. Bellamkonda currently serves as executive vice president and provost at the university. He joined the institution in January 2025 and oversees its large academic system. His responsibilities include managing 15 colleges, four regional campuses, and more than 8,800 faculty members. The appointment places an internationally recognized biomedical engineer at the helm of one of the nation’s largest public research universities.

Bellamkonda will now guide a university system that enrolls more than 67,000 students across six campuses in Ohio. The main campus sits in Columbus. Regional campuses operate in Lima, Mansfield, Marion, Newark, and Wooster. The university system also includes the Wexner Medical Center and a nationally known athletics program. In a video message after the announcement, Bellamkonda thanked the university community for welcoming him and his wife, Lalitha.

“My fellow Buckeyes, Lalitha and I have been here over 400 days, and it warms our hearts to experience the generosity with which we’ve been welcomed,” he said.

Bellamkonda said many people around the world know Ohio State for its athletic success. He added that the university also stands out as a major academic institution.

“The whole world knows that we’re an athletics powerhouse at Ohio State,” he said. “But what the world doesn’t know as well as I do now is that we are an academic powerhouse.”

During his time as provost, Bellamkonda helped shape the early stages of Ohio State’s Education for Citizenship 2035 strategic plan. The initiative focuses on academic excellence, student success, and leadership in artificial intelligence. Under his leadership, the university launched several major programs designed to strengthen learning and career outcomes.

One initiative, called AI Fluency, aims to bring artificial intelligence education into undergraduate classrooms. The program helps students understand how AI will affect their future careers. The university also created a new Career Center of Excellence. The center connects students with employers and helps them prepare for the workforce. Bellamkonda also led faculty hiring initiatives that aim to recruit leading scholars from around the world.

Before joining Ohio State, Bellamkonda served as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Emory University. There, he led efforts to recruit faculty and expand academic innovation. He also promoted the use of artificial intelligence in fields such as medicine, business, and law.

At Emory, Bellamkonda helped launch the Student Flourishing initiative and the Emory Purpose Project. These programs focused on student well-being, ethics, and personal development. Earlier in his career, Bellamkonda served as the Vinik Dean of Engineering at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering.

He also worked at Georgia Institute of Technology, where he served as the Wallace H. Coulter professor and chair of biomedical engineering. He also held the role of associate vice president for research at Georgia Tech. Bellamkonda began his academic career at Case Western Reserve University.

Along with his leadership roles, Bellamkonda built an international reputation as a biomedical engineering researcher. His laboratory developed new approaches to treat pediatric and adult brain tumors. One major innovation involved a “tumor monorail” device designed to monitor and treat brain tumors more effectively.

The device received breakthrough technology recognition from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Researchers began a Phase 1 clinical trial in December 2025 to study its ability to track recurrent glioblastoma.

Bellamkonda also received a prestigious award from the National Institutes of Health in 2021. The NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award supported his work on advanced cancer treatments funded by the National Cancer Institute. He holds 11 U.S. patents related to biomedical technologies. He also served as president of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering from 2014 to 2016.

Several major scientific groups have honored his work. These include the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering, and the Society for Biomaterials. He also holds senior membership in the National Academy of Inventors.

Bellamkonda built his academic foundation in both India and the United States. He earned his bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Osmania University in India. He later received a doctorate in medical science and biomaterials from Brown University. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in neurobiology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

His appointment now places him in charge of one of the largest and most influential public universities in the United States. University leaders expect his experience in research, innovation, and academic leadership to shape Ohio State’s future in higher education and artificial intelligence.