Govindan Sundararajan is an Indian materials engineer, known for his contributions in the areas of Surface Engineering and Ballistics. The Government of India honoured him, in 2014, by awarding him the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for his contributions to the fields of science and technology. He was born on 11 December 1953 in Andhra Pradesh, India. He graduated in metallurgical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 1976, followed by masters degree (MS) in 1979 and doctoral degree of PhD from the Ohio State University, Columbus, USA in 1981. He returned to India the next year to start his career as a scientist with the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL), in 1982. In 1997, he joined the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI) as its Director and currently holds the position.