Prof. V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai is the Vice-Chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi and Chairman of the Distance Education Council (DEC), which looks after the co-ordination of standards, quality, recognition and developmental assistance to all the 13 State Open Universities, and many other open and distance learning institutions in the country. Prof. Pillai has been at the helm of affairs of many higher education institutions during his career spanning about four decades. He has served as the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi; Director of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Bangalore; Vice-Chancellor of the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala; Vice-Chancellor of the Cochin University of Science and Technology and Founder-Director of the School of Professional Distance Education among others. He is a Fellow of the prestigious Indian Academy of Sciences and an Honorary Senior Fellow of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore.

An active teacher and researcher in the field of Chemical Sciences, Prof. Rajasekharan Pillai has held visiting research professor positions in Germany and Switzerland. He created an internationally renowned research group in the area of biopolymers and peptides and has published extensively. He is one among the top-cited chemists in the country.

He received the Presidential Gold Medal of the Indian Science Congress from the Prime Minister of India (2008), the Triennial National M. V. Pylee Award for the Top Academician of India (2007) and the R.R. Varma Foundation Best Teacher Award (2006). In 2005, he received the Indian Chemical Society Award for his life-long research achievements in the area of chemical sciences. His contributions to science and education have also been recognized by the conferment of honorary doctorates. Dr. Pillai has presented papers, given lectures and chaired sessions in many conferences all over the world.