Batra is the Clifton C. Garvin Professor, Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He earned his B.Sc. at Panjabi (now called Thapar) University, Patiala, India, his M.A.Sc. at the University of Waterloo, Canada, and his Ph.D. at the Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. He received the Alexander von Humboldt Research Award in 1992 and the Reissner Medal from the International Society of Computational Engineering Science in 2000. He served as President of the Society of Engineering Science, Inc. in 1998 and has published more than