Ravi V. Bellamkonda serves as the 18th president of The Ohio State University. He was appointed by the university’s Board of Trustees on March 12, 2026.
As president, Bellamkonda leads the state’s flagship, public research university with six campuses in Ohio and a student body of more than 67,000. Ohio State’s largest campus is in Columbus, the state capital and one of the fastest growing cities in the country. Additionally, the university has campuses in Lima, Mansfield, Marion, Newark and Wooster, as well as the nationally recognized Wexner Medical Center, a global research and innovation enterprise, and a leading athletics program.
He played an integral role in crafting and leading early phases of the Education for Citizenship 2035 strategic plan through its core academic excellence initiatives aimed at enhancing student success, investing in faculty and strong programs, and advancing Ohio State’s leadership in artificial intelligence. Under his leadership, the university launched AI Fluency, a bold initiative to integrate AI into the undergraduate experience; a new Career Center of Excellence designed to better connect students with internships, jobs and success after graduation; and faculty hiring programs that are attracting top scholars to the university.
Bellamkonda, who trained as a bioengineer and neuroscientist through a PhD at Brown University and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, joined Ohio State in January 2025 to serve as executive vice president and provost. As chief academic officer, he oversaw the university’s core academic enterprise, which includes 15 colleges, four regional campuses and more than 8,800 faculty. He also led a university-wide portfolio of programs and initiatives in the Office of Academic Affairs and Enterprise for Research, Innovation and Knowledge that support innovative and lifesaving research as well as faculty and student success in Columbus and on campuses across the state.
Prior to Ohio State, he served as the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Emory University. At Emory, Bellamkonda launched and led several major initiatives, including faculty recruitment and retention efforts focused on arts and humanistic inquiry, and artificial intelligence in areas such as medicine, business, law and more. He helped lead the Student Flourishing initiative, which included curricular innovations, and the Emory Purpose Project focused on well-being and ethics.
Before becoming Emory’s provost, Bellamkonda served as the Vinik Dean at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering. Previously, he was the Wallace H. Coulter Professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, and he also served as associate vice president for research at Georgia Tech. He began his academic career at Case Western Reserve University, where he served as an assistant and associate professor.
He is an internationally renowned biomedical researcher whose lab has invented novel approaches to treat pediatric and adult brain tumors. He won numerous honors from professional societies in biomedical engineering and biomaterials. Bellamkonda served as president of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering from 2014 to 2016.|
In 2021, he received a National Institutes of Health Director’s Transformative Research Award for his work, supported by the National Cancer Institute. The tumor monorail device developed in his lab has been recognized as a breakthrough technology by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He is the scientific founder of Exvade Bioscience, a startup that is pioneering first-in-human trials for the tumor monorail device. In December 2025, the first patients were enrolled in a Phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate the device, designed to safely monitor recurrent glioblastoma.
Additionally, Bellamkonda is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering; and Society For Biomaterials; as well as an elected senior member of the National Academy of Inventors. He has been awarded 11 U.S. patents.
President Bellamkonda and his wife, Dr. Lalita Kaligotla, are the proud parents of two adult children and C.J. the goldendoodle.
