After earning his Bachelors degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, he obtained a PhD in Operations Research from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His areas of research interest are diverse. Bala tackles theoretical and computational problems from the areas of algebraic topology and discrete optimization (integer programming and combinatorial optimization). He also works on several application areas, including computational approaches to protein structure and function, and models for human neck anatomy and physiology. He collaborates with mathematicians, computer scientists, biochemists, and bioengineers. More information is available from his web page at www.wsu.edu/~kbala.