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.