Completing his undergraduate study at the University of Madras in 1958, he then completed a master's degree at the University of New South Wales and a PhD from Stanford University in 1966.
Amongst many awards, he received the Turing Award, the most prestigious prize in computer science jointly with Edward Feigenbaum, "For pioneering the design and construction of large scale artificial intelligence systems, demonstrating the practical importance and potential commercial impact of artificial intelligence technology".
He is currently the Herbert A. Simon University Professor of Computer Science and Robotics at Carnegie-Mellon University.