Dr. Seema Vinayak, has worked with DRDO for 37 years and headed the esteemed Semiconductor Laboratory of DRDO called Solid State Physics Laboratory (SSPL) for five years as Director before her retirement in September 2023. She received her Doctorate in Physics and M Tech in Solid State Materials from Physics Department IIT Delhi after pursuing M.Sc Honours Physics from School of Honors Panjab University Chandigarh.
She has successfully spearheaded several semiconductor related transfers of technologies to production while mentoring technology development across several technology verticals at SSPL spanning GaN RF microelectronics, IR imagers, semiconductor laser diodes, acoustic emission sensors, chemical warfare agent sensors, MEMS based acceleration sensors and THz & Quantum sources and detectors for futuristic applications.
Her contributions have been recognized with several prestigious awards such as the DRDO Path Breaking Research Award as Team Leader for the development of AlGaN/GaN HEMT Process Technology, DRDO Outstanding Team Work Award for the development of GaAs MESFET based MMIC Technology, DRDO Technology Award for the development of mmW devices and National Science Day Award for her work on Nichrome resistors for MMICs.
She has to her credit nearly 60 publications in national and international journals, seminars and conferences. A complete coverage of SSPL activities under her leadership was also released by India Science channel where SSPL was announced as “Hidden jewel” quietly developing indigenous advanced semiconductor materials and devices.
Presently she is engaged with IIT Roorkee as Director of DRDO Industry Academia Centre of Excellence where she is responsible for realising collaborations among academia, Industry and DRDO for accelerated translational research that addresses technology gaps and emerging trends.
She also serves as an active member of several review committees and research councils for programs under MEITY, CSIR, IISc and DRDO labs.