Prof. Gautam Barua is a faculty member and former Director of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati. He is also a Mentor Director of Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Guwahati. Prof. Barua was involved in the establishment of IIT Guwahati since 1995 and took the Institute to newer heights during his tenure as the Director of the Institute from 2003-13.

Prof. Barua obtained his B.Tech. and M.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay, in 1976 and 1978 respectively. He did his Ph.D. in 1981 from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering , University of California, Santa Barbara. Prof. Barua has been a faculty member at IIT Kanpur and IIT Guwahati for 32 years. He works in the areas of Operating Systems and Networks. He was involved in the establishment of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Kanpur and has also been involved in the modernization of its Computer Centre, including setting up of the first LAN in the Campus. Since 2014 he has been involved in establishing IIIT, Guwahati.

Prof. Barua has more than 50 publications to his credit and has taught more than 15 different courses. He is a member of Computer Society of India, IEEE, ACM and Institution of Engineers. He has also been an IT consultant to several Government organizations and PSUs.

He enjoys reading novels, watching sports and exploring the history of different people, places and communities.