Sethuraman Panchanathan is an Indian–American computer scientist and academic administrator, and, since June 2020, the 15th Director of the U.S. National Science Foundation.^[1]

He previously served at Arizona State University as executive vice president of knowledge enterprise development and chief research and innovation officer. He was also director of the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC), Foundation Chair of Computing and Informatics at the university, and a professor in the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering (CIDSE), part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.^[2]

In January 2025, Sethuraman Panchanathan was honored with the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian award, by the Government of India.^[3][4]

Panchanathan was born and raised in Chennai in India.^[5] He attended the Vivekananda College (University of Madras), graduating in 1981 with a B.Sc. in physics.^[6] Subsequently, in 1984, he earned a B.E. in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India.^[7]

In 1986, he completed his M.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He later enrolled in the doctoral program at the University of Ottawa in Canada and received his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering in 1989^[8] while working under the direction of Morris Goldberg.^[9]

In 1989, Panchanathan was hired by the University of Ottawa as an assistant professor and was later promoted to associate professor in 1994 after receiving tenure.^[10]

In 1997, Panchanathan was hired as a tenured associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.^[11] In 2001, he was promoted to full professor and founded the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC).^[12] In the same year, Panchanathan was elevated to IEEE fellow for contributions to compressed domain processing and indexing in visual computing and communications.^[13] He also founded and led the School of Computing and Informatics (2006-2009) and the Department of Biomedical Informatics (2005-2007).^[12]

Panchanathan was appointed as the university's chief research officer in 2009.^[14] In 2011, he was promoted to senior vice president of the university's Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development.^[15]

In 2016, Panchanathan was promoted to executive vice president of ASU Knowledge Enterprise Development and chief research and innovation officer at the university.

On June 13, 2014, Panchanathan was nominated by President Barack Obama as a member of the National Science Board of the National Science Foundation.^[16] On December 19, 2019, President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Panchanathan. On June 18, 2020, he was unanimously confirmed by the US Senate as the 15th Director of the National Science Foundation.He assumed office on June 23, 2020.^{[17][18] [5]}

In 2022, Panchanathan announced the Technology, Innovation and Partnership (TIP)s directorate — NSF's first new directorate in more than 30 years.^[19]

In February 2021, Cynthia Sagers, a professor and former Vice President for Research at Arizona State University's Knowledge Enterprise, filed a lawsuit against ASU and Panchanathan, then Executive Vice President of the Knowledge Enterprise. The lawsuit alleged that Panchanathan created a hostile work environment and retaliated against Sagers by demoting her after she raised concerns about his behavior.

ASU conducted an internal investigation into Sagers' allegations and concluded that the claims were unsubstantiated. The university proceeded with the demotion, effective December 1, 2020. ^[20]

In February 2025, 168 NSF workers, representing approximately 10% of the workforce, were fired as part of mass layoffs in the U.S. federal workforce. Panchanathan's absence from the firing meetings was criticized by other NSF employees. ^[21][22][23]

Panchanathan's research interests include Human-centered Multimedia Computing (HCMC),^[24] assistive and rehabilitative technologies,^[25] haptic user interfaces, face/gait analysis and recognition, medical image processing, media processor designs and ubiquitous computing environments for enhancing quality of life for individuals with disabilities.^[26] He also mentored over 100 students and scholars, which include graduate students, post-docs, research engineers and research scientists.^[27] He spoke on the importance of fostering a culture of innovation to solve grand challenges that society faces today in a 2017 TEDxASU presentation.^[28]

Panchanathan is married to Sarada "Soumya" Panchanathan.^[29] They have two children and three grandchildren.^[2]

• Governor's Innovator of the Year for Academia Award: Governor's Celebration of Innovation Awards for iCARE (Information Technology Centric Assistive and Rehabilitative Environments) for Individuals who are Blind and Visually Impaired, Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing, 2004.^[30]
• Microsoft Imagine Cup: World Finals in Touch and Tablet category for CUbiC iCARE Note-Taker Project, Warsaw, Poland, 2010.^[31]
• 20 People to Know in Arizona Education: Listed by Phoenix Business Journal, 2017.^[32]
• COO of the Year: Recognized by Phoenix Business Journal, 2017.^[33]
• Distinguished Alumnus Awards:
  • Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
  • Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, 2017.^[34]
  • Alumni Association Awards of Excellence, University of Ottawa, Canada, 2017.^[34]
• Advisor for Science and Technology to the Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, 2018.^[35]
• Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Membership: National Academy of Inventors’ Board of Directors, 2018.^[36]
• Board Appointments:
  • Oak Ridge Associated Universities’ Board of Directors, 2018.^[37]
  • Forbes Technology Council, 2017–2018.
  • National Academy of Inventors’ Board of Directors, 2017–2018.^[38]
• Elected member, National Academy of Engineering, 2024.
• Padma Shri Award: Government of India, 2025.

• Panchanathan, S.; Chakraborty, S.; McDaniel, T.; Tadayon, R.; Fakhri, B.; O'Connor, N.; Marsden, M.; Little, S.; McGuinness, K.; Monaghan, D. (2017). "Enriching the Fan Experience in a Smart Stadium Using Internet of Things Technologies". International Journal of Semantic Computing. 11 (2): 137–170. doi:10.1142/S1793351X17400062. S2CID 34151501.
• Panchanathan, S.; Chakraborty, S.; McDaniel, T.; Tadayon, R. (August 2016). "Person-Centered Multimedia Computing: A New Paradigm Inspired by Assistive and Rehabilitative Applications". IEEE MultiMedia Magazine. 23 (3): 12–19. doi:10.1109/MMUL.2016.51.
• Panchanathan, S.; Chakraborty, S.; McDaniel, T. (2016). "Social Interaction Assistant: A Person-Centered Approach to Enrich Social Interactions for Individuals With Visual Impairments". IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing. 10 (5): 942–951. Bibcode:2016ISTSP..10..942P. doi:10.1109/JSTSP.2016.2543681.
• Panchanathan, S.; McDaniel, T. (2014). "Person-centered accessible technologies and computing solutions through interdisciplinary and integrated perspectives from disability research". International Journal Universal Access in the Information Society – Special Issue on User Experience and Access Using Augmented and Multimedia Technologies. 14 (3): 415–426. doi:10.1007/s10209-014-0369-9.
• Panchanathan, S.; McDaniel, T.; Balasubramanian, V. (2013). "An interdisciplinary approach to the design, development and deployment of person-centered accessible technologies". 2013 International Conference on Recent Trends in Information Technology (ICRTIT). pp. 750–757. doi:10.1109/ICRTIT.2013.6844294. ISBN 978-1-4799-1024-3.
• Panchanathan, S.; McDaniel, T.; Balasubramanian, V. (2012). "Person-centered accessible technologies: Improved usability and adaptation through inspirations from disability research". Proceedings of the 2012 ACM workshop on User experience in e-learning and augmented technologies in education. pp. 1–6. doi:10.1145/2390895.2390897. ISBN 978-1-4503-1593-7.
• Panchanathan, S.; Krishnan, N.; Krishna, S.; McDaniel, T.; Balasubramanian, V. (2008). "Enriched human-centered multimedia computing through inspirations from disabilities and deficit-centered computing solutions". Proceedings of the 3rd ACM international workshop on Human-centered computing. pp. 35–42. doi:10.1145/1462027.1462033. ISBN 978-1-60558-320-4.

• ASU Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development