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

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 First Professor/Head of the Electronics Engineering Department, MMM University of Technology, 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 until June 1991 and continued as a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering until June 30, 2022. Since then he is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno. 

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 200 research publications in national/international reputed journals and reviewed conference proceedings. Professor Rawat has supervised 60 MS Theses and 12 Ph. D. Dissertations.  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, recycling of light, collection of energy from atmosphere and THz band nano-antennas. He has presented keynote addresses and 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 Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic (2013 and 2014), External Examiner (Reviewer) for Monash University, Malaysia (2014-2016), Visiting Professor 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 Keynote Speaker, 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 (1990-1997).  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, Founder/Editor-in-Chief of the online “International Journal of Microwave and Optical Technology (IJMOT)” since 2005 and  Founder/President of the International Academy of Microwave and Optical Technology (IAMOT) since 2012. Dr. Rawat was awarded the First Aditya Vikram Birla Chair-2013 of Aditya Birla Training & Research Center, Pilani, India for outstanding contribution in Academics and Research. He is the recipient of IEEE Region-6 Central Area “Outstanding Leadership and Professional Service Award-2014”. Prof. Rawat has been appointed as the Distinguished Visiting Prorfessor by the BK Birla Institute of Engineering & Tehcnology (BKBIET), India in 2015, Honorary Visiting Professor by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, INDIA in March 2015 and Honorary Visiting Professor of JIIT Noida, India in 2016.. The IITs are the most prestigieous engineeirng institutions in India. He was voted as the Best Professor in the EBME Department, University of Nevada, Reno by IEEE Student Branch in 2016 and 2017, The Most Influential Professor in 2018 and 2019 and the Most Challenging Professor 2020-21. He has been awarded the Prestigious “Tor Vargata Visting Professorship” , of the University of Rome, Italy, for delivering Speicalized Lectures Series on Space Electronisc Systems, March –April 2020 (could not visit due to COVID-19 Pandameic all over the world). Prof. Rawat was awarded the “Distinguished Alumnus Awards, 2021-22” under the Academics category, by Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), India. Professor Rawat has been awarded the Emeritus Professor award in June 2022 by the University of Nevada, Reno.

Dr. Rawat is a Fellow of IETE (India), Fellow of CIE (China), Fellow of the Electromagnetics Academy established at MIT, Senior Fellow of JSPS (Japan), Fellow of Optical Society of India, Life Senior Member of IEEE, Member of Sigma Xi, North Dakota Academy of Sciences, 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, Program Volunteer/Governing Board Member of the Junior Ski Program of Reno, NV and Founder/President of the India Association of Northern Nevada (IANN).