N Purnachandra Rao has been appointed as the Director, National Centre for Earch Sciences Studies (NCESS), Thiruvananthapuram.
A chief scientist at the CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, Rao is an experienced seismologist.
A Ph D in Geophysics from Osmania University, Rao has a degree from University of Tokyo and has served three decades at NGRI as a seismologist.
In 2016, he was awarded the National Geoscience Award.
