Prior to coming to NYU, he served from 2003 to 2009 as the director of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, for nearly seven years. Earlier, he taught at the University of Maryland for about a year and a half, as Distinguished University Professor, Glenn L. Martin Professor of Engineering and Professor of Physics, and as the Director of the Institute for Physical Science and Technology. Prior to that, Sreenivasan taught at Yale since 1979 as a faculty member, first in the department of engineering and applied science and subsequently in several other capacities: he was the Harold W. Cheel Professor of Mechanical Engineering (1988-2002) and held joint appointments in the departments of physics, applied physics and mathematics; he was also the chair of the mechanical engineering department (1987-1992) and the acting chairman of the council of engineering (1989). His post-doctoral work included two years in Australia and at the Johns Hopkins University for a similar period of time. He has been a visiting professor at Caltech, Rockefeller University, Cambridge University, and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, among others.

Sreenivasan’s honors include: Sigma Xi Fellowship, membership in the Scientific Research Honor Society, an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation research award, the J.C. Bose Lectureship of the Indian National Science Academy, Guggenheim Fellowship, Otto Laporte Memorial Award of American Physical Society, TWAS Medal Lecture in Engineering Science, Distinguished Alumnus Award and Centennial Professorship of the Indian Institute of Science, Sir C.V. Raman Visiting Professorship of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the International Prize and Gold Medal in memory of Professors Modesto Panetti and Carlo Ferrari, Academia delle Scienze di Torino, Italy, National Order of Scientific Merit (the highest scientific honor) by the Brazilian Government and the Academy of Sciences, UNESCO Medal for Promoting International Scientific Cooperation and World Peace from the World Heritage Centre, Florence, Italy, President Dr. Zakir Husain Memorial Award from the Duty Society and the Indian Society of Applied and Industrial Mathematics, Honorary Membership, Academia Torre e Tasso, Duino-Aurisina, Trieste, Italy, the Melvin Jones Fellow of the Lions Club (for humanitarian service), the Dwight Nicholson Medal of the American Physical Society for human outreach, and the 2009 Nusselt-Reynolds Prize from the Assembly of World Conference on Experimental Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, the 2009 AAAS award for International Scientific Cooperation, and the 2011 Multicultural Leadership Award of the National Diversity Council. Sreenivasan is also the recipient of an NSF Trailblazer Engineering Impact Award, given to researchers with established records of creativity and paradigm-shifting outcomes to pursue novel engineering research projects that will open unexplored frontiers.

Sreenivasan has been elected to the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), and the African Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Sciences, US National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Accademia die Lincei in Italy. He has also been elected as a Foreign Fellow of Academia Europa. Within the National Academies, Sreenivasan has served on the NAE Committee on Membership and the Mechanical Engineering Section (chair, vice chair, member) and the Mechanical Engineering Peer Committee (chair, vice chair, member); the NAS Class III Membership Committee; the NRC Committee on Human Rights of the NAS, NAE, and IOM; the Committee on Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics; and the Nonlinear Dynamics and Fractals Committee; and on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Editorial Board.