M.N. Gopalan holds a Ph D degree from IIT, Madras. He was associated with IIT, Bombay for 35 years from 1960 to 1995. During this period, he guided 23 Ph D scholars, besides guiding a number of M Tech, M Sc and B Tech students in the field of Quality and Reliability Engineering and Operations Research. He has more than 260 research papers to his credit, published in various national and international journals devoted to Quality and Reliability Engineering and Operations Research. He was the Convenor of the Inter-Disciplinary Post-Graduate Programme in Reliability Engineering at IIT, Bombay for nearly a decade and was instrumental in starting the programme in 1984.

M.N. Gopalan organized a number of conferences at the national level in the field of Operations Research, Quality and Reliability Engineering, and conducted several short term programmes, lecture series and courses in these areas for the benefit of those from industries and engineering colleges in the country. M.N. Gopalan is a life member of several professional bodies in the country. He is also the Editor/ Associate Editor/ Member of the Editorial Board of Technical Journals published by some of these professional bodies. M.N. Gopalan’s name is mentioned in the Who-is-Who-in-the-World Directories published by various international bodies and has been honoured with a number of prizes and medals in recognition of his contributions to society, during the past four and a half decades.