USC Office of Research and Innovation

Ishwar K. Puri is senior vice president, research and innovation and professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at University of Southern California. He oversees the USC Office of Research and Innovation that guides the university’s research programs.

He is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and holds the Engineering Medal for Engineering Excellence awarded by Professional Engineers Ontario and the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers.

Puri is the author of over 200 archival publications and books that have been cited over 8,500 times per Google Scholar with an H-Index of 53. He has founded and mentored startups. He is ranked among the top 2% of scientists in the world based on the citations of those who published between 1965-2019.

Prior to his appointment at USC, Puri was dean of the Faculty of Engineering and professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. In Canada, he was one of 18 members of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, an appointment made by the governor general of Canada. He served as chair of the Canadian National Council of Deans of Engineering and Applied Science, now called Engineering Deans Canada.

Before that, he was N. Waldo Harrison professor of engineering science and mechanics (ESM) at Virginia Tech, where he served as department head from 2004-13. He served as a postdoctoral fellow and assistant research engineer at the University of California, San Diego, from 1987-90. Thereafter, he was appointed as assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in 1990, then promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure in 1994 and to the rank of professor in 1999. He served at UIC as associate dean for research and graduate studies (2000-01) and as executive associate dean of engineering (2001-04).

He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Delhi’s College of Engineering and obtained his master’s degree in engineering science (applied mechanics) and PhD from the University of California, San Diego.

Puri serves on the editorial board of Scientific Reports, a Nature Group journal, and is an associate editor of Research, a Science partner journal.