Vijaya Raghavan obtained his PhD (Agr Eng) from Colorado State University, his MSc (Agr Eng) from the University of Guelph, and his BEng (Mech Eng) from Bangalore University. He joined McGill in 1974 as a Research Associate in the Department of Agricultural Engineering, and he is presently a James McGill Professor (equivalent to a Canada Research Chair I). He was Departmental Chair from 1993 to 2003. His research has been on the effects of soil compaction on crop productivity, and on post-harvest technologies related to drying and storage.
He has directed four CIDA-funded projects: Three dealt with the transfer of expertise and post-harvest technologies to southern India for the consolidation of food security, and one was on the transfer of expertise and electro-technologies to China for research into food processing and other applications.
In 2012, he was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), and into the National Academy of Agriculture Sciences (India) as a Foreign Fellow. He is currently President of the Canadian Society of Bioengineering (CSBE) and Director of the ASE division of the Academy of Science of the RSC. He is an active member of the Food Expert Advisory Committee which provides informed advice to the Minister of Health.