Dr. Rao Tummala is a Distinguished and an Endowed Chair Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and in Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech. He is also the Founding Director of an Engineering Research Center (ERC), originally funded by the NSF, called the Microsystems Packaging Research Center (PRC) pioneering the Second Law of Electronics (the first being Moore ’s Law) by his System-On-Package (SOP) vision. The PRC is currently the largest and most comprehensive micro-systems packaging research, education and industry collaboration Center involving 200 students and 15 faculty from ECE, ME, ChE and MSE departments, and 40 global companies from the U.S., Europe and Asia. He is also an Eminent scholar for the State of Georgia.

Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Professor Tummala was a Fellow at IBM Corporation where he invented a number of major technologies for IBM's products for displaying, printing, magnetic storage, and packaging. He was the lead materials scientist pioneering the industry’s first flat panel display in the 1970s; Technical leader and Program Manager for the industry’s first R&D in multi-chip-module (MCM) leading to the first 61-layer, low-temperature, co-fired ceramic (LTCC) in 1980s. He was the Director of IBM ’s Advanced Packaging Research laboratory responsible for IBM’s Strategy and Programs in the U.S. , Europe and Japan before accepting a research center directorship at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1993.

Dr. Tummala received many academic, industry and professional society awards including “Industry Week’s” one of the 50 stars in the U.S. for improving U.S. competitiveness, the David Sarnoff Award, the Third Millennium Award from IEEE, Daniel Hughes and John Wagnon's Award from IMAPS, Materials Engineering Achievement Award from ASM-International, the John Jeppson Award from American Ceramic Society, the Total Excellence Award in Electronics Manufacturing (TEEM) Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, and the European Materials Award from DVM. He also received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Illinois and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. Most recently, he received the highest faculty award, the Distinguished Faculty Award from Georgia Tech. He  has published over 320 technical papers, holds 71 U.S. patents and inventions, and authored the first modern reference book for microsystems packaging in 1988, and the first undergraduate textbook in 2001. He is a fellow of the IEEE, IMAPS, and the American Ceramic Society; a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and was the President of the IEEE-CPMT Society and IMAPS Society. He is a consultant to many of the Fortune 500 electronics companies in the U.S., Europe and Asia.