Banmali S. Rawat was born in Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India. He received BSEE, MSEE degrees from the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University and Ph.D. (ECE) from Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, India in 1968, 1970 and 1976, respectively. He was recipient of National Merit Scholarship, UGC Fellowship, Atomic Energy Commission Fellowship, United Nations Fellowship and the University Gold Medal for first rank in MSEE. He was a faculty member with the MMM Engineering College, Gorakhpur and Instrumentation Engineer in the West Coast Paper Mills before starting his Ph.D. in 1972.

He joined the Defense R & D Organization (DRDO) as Senior Scientist in 1975 and worked on various research projects in microwave systems/circuits, microwave/millimeter wave integrated circuits for radar and communication systems.  He became Associate Professor in 1978 and Professor/Head of the Electronics Engineering Department, Madan Mohan Malaviya Engineering College, University of Gorakhpur, India in 1981.  In 1981 he joined the Electrical Engineering Department, University of North Dakota, USA and was a Professor until 1988 before moving to the University of Nevada, Reno, USA, as Professor/Head-Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Department and is continuing as a Professor.  During his long teaching career he has been very active in developing new courses, laboratories and programs in Electromagnetics, Microwave Engineering, Microwave Integrated Circuits, Optical Fiber Communications, Optical Networking, Optical Sensors and other related areas.  He has been teaching various courses in these areas since 1978 and is continuously moving in the cutting edge technological areas.  He has done extensive research in these areas with over 185 research publications in national/international reputed journals and reviewed conference proceedings.  His recent research focus has been on microstrip couplers/filters on defective ground structures (DGS) using anisotropic substrates, optically controlled couplers, optical fiber sensors, DWDM technology with secured optical communication and recycling of light. He has presented invited papers in many scientific conferences/ universities all over the world.  He has been consultant to IBM, EF Johnson Co., UPS, Ikanos Communications, Hytek Microsystems etc.  Besides these important positions, Dr. Rawat has been Visiting Professor in the Kyushu University, Japan (2005), Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany (2002), University of New South Wales, Australia (2000-2001), Visiting Senior Scientist in the Advanced Telecommunication Research (ATR) Institute, Kyoto, Japan (2000), Visiting Professor in Ecole Nationale d’Ingenieurs de Brest, France (1998), JSPS Visiting Professor in the Kyushu University, Japan (1997-98) and NASA Summer Professor in the Kennedy Space Center, Florida in 1997 and 1999. 

 Dr. Rawat has been listed in “Who’s Who in Technology Today”, “The International Directory of Distinguished Leadership”, “Who’s Who in Electromagnetics”, Who’s Who in America”, “American Men and Women of Science”, “Who’s Who Among Asian Americans”, “Who’s Who in the World” and “Who’s Who in Science and Engineering”.  He was invited by the United Nations as an International Expert in Microwaves and Optical Technology under TOKTEN and UNIDO programs in 1989, 1992 and 1994.  He has Chaired/Organized many national/international symposia/conferences and has been the Plenary Session Chair, Technical Program Chair and Editor of several Conference Proceedings.  He is an Advisory Board Member and Chapter author for the “Electrical Engineering Handbook”, published by CRC Press/IEEE Press.  He has been reviewer for IEEE, IEE, Intl. Journal of Electronics, Journal of Electromagnetic Waves & Applications and Indian Jr of Radio and Space Physics and book reviewer for John Wiley, McGraw-Hill, Prentice Hall and other publishers.  Dr. Rawat has been Chair of IEEE Northern Nevada Section.  He is the Founder/Chair of the “International Symposium on Microwave and Optical Technology (ISMOT)”, Founder/Chair of the IEEE MTTS/PS Chapter of Northern Nevada since 2000 and Founder/Editor-in-Chief of the online “International Journal of Microwave and Optical Technology (IJMOT)” since 2005.  

Dr. Rawat is a Fellow of IETE, Fellow of CIE, Fellow of the Electromagnetics Academy established at MIT, Fellow of JSPS, Senior Member of IEEE, Member of Sigma Xi, North, Optical Society of America, SPIE, and Eta Kappa Nu - the EE Honor Society.  He has been a Soccer Coach/Division Coordinator/Governing Board Member with AYSO, Sparks, NV, ProgramVolunteer/Governing Board Member of the Junior Ski Program of Reno, NV and Founder/President of the India Association of Northern Nevada (IANN).