Dr. Eleswarapu Chinna Subbarao received BSc in Glass Technology in 1949 from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), BS (1952) and MS (1954) degrees in Ceramic Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle; and PhD in Ceramic Technology in 1957 from the Pennsylvania State University. His doctoral thesis pioneered work on domain effects in ferroelectric ceramic barium titanate. Dr. Subbarao worked at Westinghouse Research Laboratories, Pittsburgh, PA (1956-63). In 1963, he joined IIT Kanpur, served as the first Head of Metallurgical Engineering Department; then as Founder-Director, Tata Research Development and Design Centre, Tata Consultancy Services, Pune. Dr. Subbarao organized the first conference on Materials Science Education in India in 1966 and established an interdisciplinary postgraduate programme in Materials Science at IIT Kanpur. He was the first Dean of Faculty at IIT Kanpur and played a pivotal role in assembling world-class faculty at the IIT. Mrs. Usha Ram Kumar instituted the Prof. E.C. Subbarao Distinguished Lecture Series at the Department of Materials and Metallurgical Sciences.