Pradeep Sharma is the M.D. Anderson Professor and Chair of Mechanical Engineering. He also has a joint appointment in the Department of Physics. He received his Ph.D. in micromechanics of materials (mechanical engineering) from the University of Maryland at College Park in the year 2000. He also has background in solid state and mathematical physics. Subsequent to his doctoral degree, he was employed at General Electric R & D for more than three years as a research scientist.

There he worked in two simultaneous programs on Nanotechnology and Photonics apart from basic research in problems of theoretical and computational materials science. He joined the department of mechanical engineering at University of Houston in January 2004.

His honors and awards include the Young Investigators Award from Office of Naval Research, Thomas J.R. Hughes Young Investigator Award from the ASME, Texas Space Grants Consortium New Investigators Program Award, Fulbright Award, and the ASME Melville Medal. He is currently an associate editor of the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids and serves on the editorial board of several other journals.