Rajesh P. N. Rao was born in Madras (now Chennai) and grew up in Hyderabad, India where he graduated from Kendriya Vidyalaya Kanchanbagh (a Central Government school). During high school, he obtained 2nd rank in science in the nation in 10th grade board exams and was selected as one of five high school students from India to participate in the 1987 Research Science Institute (RSI) summer program: as part of RSI, he was fortunate to get his first taste of scientific research when he worked in a lab experimenting with high-temperature superconductivity at the University of Maryland, College Park, and his article Epitaxy of high-t_c superconductors was selected for a best paper award.
Rajesh's research spans the areas of computational neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and brain-computer interfacing. He also works on the 4000-year-old Indus script (on which he has given a TED talk) and studies classical Indian painting.