Padmanabhan Balaram is an Indian biochemist and a former director of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India. He is a recipient of the fourth highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Shri (2002). He was born on February 19, 1949. Balaram received his Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Fergusson College, University of Pune followed by a Master's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and his PhD degree from Carnegie Mellon University. Balaram's main area of research has been the investigation of the structure, conformation, and biological activity of designed and natural peptides. To do this, he has extensively used techniques such as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy, Infrared spectroscopy, and Circular Dichroism, along with X-ray crystallography. He has been a major contributor to the evaluation of factors influencing the folding and conformations of designed peptides, and has investigated structural elements playing a key role in the formation of secondary structural motifs such as helices, beta turns, and sheets. Balaram has authored more than 400 research papers, and is a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy. He received Padma Bhushan Award in 2014.