Thenkurussi (Kesh) Kesavadas

Thenkurussi “Kesh” Kesavadas is the Vice President for Research & Economic Development at the University at Albany, State University of New York, where he leads a diverse portfolio of academic and sponsored research for the Carnegie R1-designated University. 

At UAlbany, he has launched a new $200 million artificial intelligence initiative that received $75 million from the State of New York, paving way for a new $20 million Center for Emerging AI Systems in collaboration with IBM. Kesavadas is serving as the co-chair of the SUNY-wide work group on AI research and infrastructure that is helping to chart the future of SUNY in this rapidly evolving field. 

Before joining UAlbany in 2022, he served as the founder Director of the Health Care Engineering Systems Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2014 to 2022. Kesavadas was also a professor of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering and held faculty appointments in the Department of Computer Science, and with the Carle-Illinois College of Medicine at the University of Illinois. He also served as a Fellow of the University of Illinois President's Executive Leadership Program (PELP). Kesavadas held the title of the Engineering-in-Chief of the Jump ARCHES endowment, where he managed a $112.5 million endowment.

Kesavadas has widely published in the areas of medical robotics, AR/VR, digital twinning, AI, haptics, medical simulation and automation. He is also an inventor of products that have been successfully commercialized. 

In 2008, Kesavadas developed the world’s first stand-alone virtual reality Robotic Surgical Simulator called RoSS™ that is used around the world to train residents and medical students. This invention led to forming Simulated Surgical Systems to commercialize RoSS™. Additionally, he is the founder and CTO of AirV Labs, an award-winning VR startup company that focuses on creating usable generative AI with virtual interface.

Kesavadas has also won numerous awards including Inventor of the Year award in Western New York and the University at Buffalo’s Visionary of the Year award. He was also named as one of the five gurus of biomedical engineering by Business Week Magazine. Kesavadas is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and he served on the American College of Surgeons' simulation and technology executive committee from 2015 to 2023.

From 1996 to 2014, Kesavadas was a faculty in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at University at Buffalo, SUNY. While at UB, in 1996, he founded one of the first virtual reality labs in the United States.