Hyderabad|India|November'2009: Dr. K. Seshagiri Rao, Professor, Department of Plant Sciences in the School of Life Sciences at University of Hyderabad, has been selected as a ‘Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland’ by the Royal Asiatic Society, London.

Dr. K. Seshagiri Rao, is a senior faculty in the Department of Plant Sciences. He is an alumnus of the University of Hyderabad and has done research work in the areas of Protein Biochemistry, Glycobiology, Medicinal Botany, Plant Systematics, Diversity and Conservation; Bio-energy Resources and Global Biodiversity Informatics.

The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (RAS) was, according to its Royal Charter of 11 August 1824, established to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia." From its incorporation the Society has been a forum, through lectures, its journal, and other publications, for scholarship relating to Asian culture and society of the highest level. It is the United Kingdom's senior learned society in the field of Asian studies. Fellows include highly accomplished and notable scholars of Asian Studies, and are entitled to use post-nominal letters FRAS.

The Society was founded in London in 1823, and received its Royal Charter from George IV the following year. The RAS was established by a group primarily composed of notable scholars and colonial administrators. It was intended to be the British counterpart to the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, which had been founded in 1784, by the noted Sanskrit scholar and jurist Sir William Jones. The leading figure in the foundation of the RAS was Henry Thomas Colebrooke, who was himself an important Sanskrit scholar, and one time President of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta.

Throughout its history the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland has, while only maintaining a very modestly sized membership, always contained a great deal of very distinguished individuals, from both the academic and political world. A list of the most accomplished would include such notables as Rabindranath Tagore, Sir Aurel Stein, and Sir Wilfred Thesiger. This membership hails from all over the globe, but primarily the United Kingdom and Asia. Fellows of the Society are elected regularly, and can use the post-nominal letters FRAS.