Madhavi Latha Gali is a Professor of Civil Engineering and the Chair of Centre for Sustainable Technologies at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. She has 25 years of experience in geotechnical engineering research, teaching and practice. She is a fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering. Born to a farming couple in a small village in Andhra Pradesh, she overcame several hardships to become the first engineer from her village. A gold medalist from NIT Warangal and a Doctorate from IIT Madras, Prof. Madhavi was the first female faculty member of the more than 50-year-old Department of Civil Engineering at Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Her research is focused on sustainable soil reinforcement, earthquake geotechnical engineering and rock engineering. She is known for her significant technical contributions to the design and construction of the world’s highest railway bridge across river Chenab in Jammu, as a geotechnical consultant to this iconic national project. She served as the Editor-in-chief of the Indian Geotechnical Journal published by Springer for six years and currently serving as an Associate Editor to some prestigious international journals. She is an elected national executive committee member of the Indian Geotechnical Society and nominated member of several international technical committees related to geotechnical engineering. She received many awards, including Distinguished alumna award of NIT Warangal, Best woman researcher in Geotechnical Engineering award, Prof. S. K. Chatterjee outstanding researcher award of IISc, Ramoji excellence award in Science and Technology, Vishwakarma award, Teacher Extraordinaire award and Avinash Shirode Yashokirti award. She is listed in the top 75 women in STEAM of India.