ACAL@IITK logo ACAL@IITK
Portrait of Dr. Rajesh Ranjan

Dr. Rajesh Ranjan

Associate Professor

Department of Aerospace Engineering
IIT Kanpur, India

Education

Ph.D. (2010–2015)

JNCASR, Bengaluru

Advisors: Prof. R. Narasimha & Prof. S. M. Deshpande

M.E. (2005–2007)

IISc, Bengaluru

B.E. (2001–2005)

BIT, Sindri (Gold Medalist)

Experience

Associate Professor

IIT Kanpur · 2025–Present

Assistant Professor

IIT Kanpur · 2021–2025

Co-founder & Director

Vayusoft Labs (IITK-incubated) · 2024–Present

Postdoctoral Scholar

The Ohio State University, USA · 2017–2021

Research Associate

JNCASR, Bengaluru · 2015–2017

Member of Technical Staff

TATA Computational Research Labs · 2007–2010

About

Dr. Rajesh Ranjan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at IIT Kanpur, where he leads the Aeroscience Computations & Analysis Lab (ACAL). His work brings together high-fidelity simulation (DNS/LES), hydrodynamic stability, and scientific machine learning to understand and control complex flows across turbomachinery, high-speed aerodynamics, and fundamental turbulence.

His group develops scalable, GPU-enabled CFD solvers — ANUROOP, PRAVAH and DHARA — along with underPINN, an in-house physics-informed neural-network framework. He was previously a postdoctoral scholar at The Ohio State University and earned his Ph.D. at JNCASR, Bengaluru under Prof. Roddam Narasimha and Prof. S. M. Deshpande. He is also co-founder and director of Vayusoft Labs, an IIT Kanpur–incubated startup, and serves as a technical mentor for Spacephilic.

25+

Journal papers

60+

Conference papers

≈₹11 Cr

Research funding

814

Citations · h-index 14

Professional Service & Leadership

Editorial

  • Editor — Emerging Trends in Fluid Mechanics & Fluid–Structure Interactions (INCAM 2026 proceedings), Springer Nature
  • Guest Editor — Computers & Fluids (Elsevier) and Sadhana (Indian Academy of Sciences), 2024–25

Committees & Organizing

  • Member, Executive Committee — Asian CFD (ACFD), 2022–Present
  • Secretary — Indian National Conference on Applied Mechanics (INCAM) 2026
  • Subtrack Co-Chair (Gas Turbine) — ASME IMECE India 2026
  • Organizing Secretary — Asian CFD Conference 2023
  • Key Organizer — Indo-Japanese Workshops on CFD-based AI & HPC (2024, 2025)

Memberships & Review

  • Member — AIAA, ASME, APS, EUROMECH, Aeronautical Society of India
  • Reviewer — J. Fluid Mech., J. Comput. Phys., Computers & Fluids, AIAA Journal, and others
  • Session Chair — AIAA Aviation, ICCFD-12, ACFD-2022, ISSW-35, ASME-IMECE India 2026

Awards & Honors

International

Visiting Scholar (VSPP)

Florida State University (2026)

Fellowship

LOTUS Fellowship, JST Japan

with Prashant Kumar (2026)

Startup

DPIIT Startup India Seed Fund (SISFS)

2025

Teaching

Director's Commendation for Outstanding Teaching (3x)

IIT Kanpur (2021–2024)

National

All India Rank-3, GATE · Gold Medal, B.E.

2005

Industry

Outstanding Performance Award (3x)

TATA CRL (2008–2010)

Student Awards (as Research Supervisor)

  • 2026: Outstanding PhD Thesis — Harshit Tiwari, IIT Kanpur

  • 2026: Best Poster Award — Aditya Aanand, Symposium on AI-driven CFD, IIT Gandhinagar

  • 2025: Best Poster Award — Malavika Nair, CASML-2025, IISc Bengaluru

  • 2024: Hackathon Winner — Prashant Kumar, CASML-2024, IISc Bengaluru

  • 2022: Best Paper Award — Pranjal Anand, ICTACEM-2021

  • 2021: Best Paper of the Session — Geetam Saha, FMFP-2021

Rajesh Ranjan (centre) with his doctoral advisors Prof. Roddam Narasimha (left) and Prof. S. M. Deshpande (right) at JNCASR, Bengaluru

Mentorship

“I am getting paid for doing things that I enjoy, isn’t it wonderful?”

— Prof. Roddam Narasimha

With my doctoral advisors Prof. Roddam Narasimha (left) and Prof. S. M. Deshpande (right) at JNCASR, Bengaluru.