Born on March 21, 1960 in Jamalpur, Munger (Bihar), Rajiv Kumar Mandal has obtained B.Sc. (Physics Hons, 1980), M.Sc.(Physics, 1983) from Bhagalpur University and M.Tech.(Materials Technology, 1986) and Ph.D.(Met.Engg., 1990) from Banaras Hindu University.
Professor Rajiv Kumar Mandal, has been teaching courses related to Physical Metallurgy and Materials Science at undergraduate and postgraduate levels at IIT(BHU), Varanasi since 1992. He has supervised 45 B.Tech. Theses, 32 M.Tech.dissertations and 17 doctoral theses (12 completed and 5 in progress).
Professor Mandal has over 150 technical publications to his credit in journals of international repute. His current interest is in the area of nanomaterials, structural & microstructural evolution, phase transformations and quasicrystals. He is a Fellow of Indian Institute of Metals, Fellow of Electron Microscope Society of India, and an Academician of Asia-Pacific Academy of Materials and has delivered MRSI medal lecture-2010. He has been DFG-INSA visiting scientist at University of Dortmund (March 2000). He has visited Ecole de Mines, Nancy, France (June 2008) under CEFIPRA project on Quasicrystals. He is a member of editorial board of CMC, Trans Tech USA.
In addition to contributions in the aforesaid areas, professor Mandal takes interests in understanding commonalities of purposes for better quality of life on the planet. He advocates need for transdisciplinary dialogues for a sustainable future of human beings and nature.