Vijayalakshmi Ravindranath MSc, PhD, FNASc, FTWAS, FNA, FAMS

Vijayalakshmi Ravindranath (born 18 October 1953) is an Indian neuroscientist. She is currently a Professor at, Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. She was the Founder Director of the National Brain Research Centre, Gurgaon (2000-9), and founder Chair of the Centre for Neuroscience at the Indian Institute of Science. Her main area of interest is the study of brain-related disorders including neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Ravindranath earned her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from Andhra University and received her Ph.D. (Biochemistry) in 1981 from Mysore University and worked at the National Cancer Institute, the USA as a Postdoctoral Fellow. She joined the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, where she studied the metabolizing capacity of the human brain, focusing especially on psychoactive drugs and environmental toxins. In 1999, she helped the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India to establish the National Brain Research Centre (NBRC), an autonomous institution of DBT to co-ordinate and network neuroscience research groups in India.