As of October 2021, Prof. Ramamurthi is the tenth and current Director of IIT Madras. Prof. Ramamurthi was born on 17 April 1959, in Chennai. He completed his five year course in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from IIT Madras in 1980, and his MS and PhD. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1982 and 1985 respectively. Prof. Ramamurthi worked with AT&T Bell Labs as Post-Doctoral Member of Technical Staff where some of his early work along with his colleagues led to the development of Wi-Fi.

Prof. Ananth was the ninth Director of IIT Madras. Madaboosi Santanam Ananth, better known as Prof. M. S. Ananth was born in 1945. He was brought up in Chennai. He joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at Alagappa College of Technology in Chennai. Following this, he went to the University of Florida, where he worked on molecular theory. In 1972, he was offered a position as assistant professor at IIT Madras. He was also one of the pioneers responsible for the founding of the Research Park, which is India's first university-based research park. Prof.

Prof. Ramamurthy Natarajan took over as eighth Director of IIT Madras in the 1995. In 2001 he completed his tenure in this post and subsequently retired from the Institute. During his directorship, he did a lot for the Institute’s ranking in the global list of high quality education institutions. He was a stickler for quality and benchmarking and even formed a committee to look into the reasons as to why IIT Madras wasn’t no.1 in the global rankings.

Prof. N. V. Chandrasekhara Swamy was from the Department of Applied Mechanics. Prof. Swamy was the seventh Director of IIT Madras. He was deeply involved in the various activities on campus, including acting in a play during the 1964 Inter-IIT Sports Meet. It appears that this theatrical affiliation was evident in Prof. Swamy’s classes where students describe him as an energetic person with a great sense of humour. He strove to implement the German method of efficiency and hard work, which he had experienced first hand on his visit to Germany in 1968. Prof.

Prof. Laxmipuram Srinivasachar Srinath (1927-2012) was a celebrated teacher and an educationist par excellence. On 27-07-1984, Prof. L. S. Srinath became the sixth Director of IIT Madras. Over the course of his career, Prof. L. S. Srinath made a number of significant contributions to science and technology. He is a veteran in the areas of Experimental Mechanics, Photoelasticity, Photothermoelasticity, Stress Wave Propogation in Solids etc.

Pavaguda Venkata Indiresan (1928–2013) was an Indian engineer, educationist and administrator. His intellectual landscape comes from the fact that he encompasses so many different disciplines and has produced top-tier work in most of them. He is simultaneously an inventor, scientist, social scientist and lot’s more. On 16th April, 1979, Prof. P. V. Indiresan was appointed as Director of IIT Madras. He served as Director for a total of five years, until 24th July, 1984 and contributed quite extensively to the Institute during this period.

Prof. R. G. Narayanamurthi joined IIT Madras on 2 May 1960 as a Professor in Mechanical Engineering. Prof. Narayanamurthi was the fourth Director of IIT Madras and the first Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He contributed to the planning and establishment of various departments of the institute and also the establishment of the JEE (Joint Entrance Examination). He served as Dean of the Industrial Consultancy Cell (ICC) and was closely associated with industries, in both private and joint sectors in the field of continuing education.

Krishnan Aditya Varman Pandalai was born in 1928 in Jamshedpur. His father, Shankunni Pandalai, was Chief Engineer at the Tata Steel Plant at Jamshedpur. Prof. Pandalai was the third Director of IIT Madras. Prof. Pandalai did his early education in Kerala, after which he got a B.Sc. degree in Mathematics and Physics from Loyola College, Madras University in 1947. He obtained his Masters in Aeronautical Engineering in 1950, and his doctorate in the same field in 1955, from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, New York.

Prof. A. Ramachandran was appointed as the second Director of IIT Madras in the year 1967, at the age of 44, and took over from the first Director of the Institute, Prof. B. Sengupto on 11th December that year. During his tenure, 1967-1973, he made immense contributions to the Institute. The current day research focus of the Institute can be rightly attributed to his vision at the time. He met the education aspects and the managerial aspects of his duties with utmost efficiency.