Prof. K. VijayRaghavan, former Director of the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, investigates genetic aspects of animal development. His group focusses on the integrated, sequential development of sensory and locomotory organs of the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster, in particular muscles, nerves, neural circuits and the behaviours that they enable. He studies the development and function of neural circuits and their muscles, their plasticity and maintenance, and olfactory habituation. Signalling mechanisms and the cell biology of tissue morphogenesis are other areas that he works on.

Prof. VijayRaghavan is a recipient of the Padma Shri and the CSIR Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and the TWAS, and was elected a Foreign Associate of the U. S. National Academy of Sciences. He was appointed as the Secretary of the Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India in 2013.