Venkataramanan (Ragu) Balakrishnan received the B.Tech degree in electronics and communication from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, in 1985. He then attended Stanford University, where he received an MS in statistics and PhD degree in electrical engineering in 1992.  Following post-doctoral stints at Stanford, Caltech, and the Institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland, he joined the Purdue School of ECE in 1994 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to the rank of professor in 2003.

He has served as assistant head and director of graduate admissions (2003-04) and the associate head for education (2004-07).  He has served as the associate dean for research in the College of Engineering since August 2007, and as interim head of electrical and computer engineering since January 2009.

His primary research interests are in applying numerical techniques, especially those based on convex optimization, towards engineering applications. He is a co-author of the monograph Linear Matrix Inequalities in System and Control Theory, published by SIAM, Philadelphia, in 1994.

He received the President of India Gold medal from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, in 1985; the Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research in 1997; the Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Teacher Award from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1998; and the Honeywell Award for excellence in teaching from the school in 2001. He was named a Purdue University Faculty Scholar in 2008.