Prof. Rameshwar Prasad Misra is a development planner, Gandhian scholar, and peace researcher of international repute. Born on 5 September 1930 in a non-descript village Hanumanpur in Pure Chattu Gram Panchayat of Pratapgarh district, Uttar Pradesh, Prof. Misra received his primary education in a nearby village school Narai; he did his middle school (seventh class) at Awadhesh Middle School, Sangramgarh in 1945, and high school (10th class) at Hanumat High School, Kalakankar in 1948. Since there was only one Intermediate College in the district, his parents got him admitted in Government Intermediate College, Allahabad. Prof. Misra then joined Allahabad University and earned his BA and MA (Geography) degrees in 1952 and 1954 respectively. He worked as an Assistant in Lok Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi for 3 years (1954-57). Not interested in secretarial work and inclined to be in academic field, he resigned and joined the post of Field Officer in National Atlas Organization, Ministry of Scientific Research and Cultural Affairs, Calcutta (1957-61). While posted in Dehradun, he attended the evening classes of DAV Post-graduate College affiliated to Agra University, and earned his MA degree in Economics in 1960.
He was granted Research Assistantship by the University of Maryland, College Park, Md. USA and Fulbright Travel Grand by the US Educational Foundation, New Delhi (USEFI) to do his Ph. D. He joined Maryland University, USA in 1961 and returned to India with Ph. D. degree in 1964. The topic of his research was: Agricultural Development in Traditional Societies: Case Study of Amish Farmers of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, USA.
On return from USA, Prof. Misra was offered the post of Reader (Associate Professor) and Head of Department of Post-Graduate Studies and Research in Geography, Mysore University, Karnataka in 1965. His academic and administrative performance was so good, that he was promoted as Professor and Head of Department in 1968. Under his leadership, the Department of Geography of Mysore University became a leading department of Geography in South India.
Prof. Misra went beyond the field of Geography and launched an interdisciplinary Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in 1972 with a sumptuous grant from Ford Foundation, New Delhi. By 1976, IDS became a link between the people, government and the university through a series of training and applied research programs including the one for newly recruited IAS officers of India. In recognition of his work at Mysore University in the field of development planning, the UNDP, Teheran, Iran invited him as a Consultant Advisor in 1975 to help revamp the urban and rural development policies and programs in Iran. It is here that he developed his well-known Growth Center Theory of integrated rural-urban development. In 1974, he was invited by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Geneva to promote research on Development Planning. His work in the field of Planning and Development became so well-known that he was invited as visiting professor by Boston and Pittsburgh universities in the USA and as number of countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America as UN advisor, expert and consultant. Important among these countries are:

1. 1. Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico in South and Central America.
2. 2. Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan, and Egypt in Africa.
3. 3. Iran and Israel in West Asia.
4. 4. Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, China, South Korea, Philippines, and Japan in Southeast and East Asia..

Prof. Misra worked Vice-Director, United Nations Center for Regional Development (UNCRD), Nagoya Japan for about 5 years (1979-84). Soon after he joined the UNCRD, he was offered the post of Vice-chancellor of Allahabad University in 1980. He declined this offer because the projects that he started there had just begun and his exit from there would have ended the journey before it reached even the first milestone. He declined to accept the offer. He was offered this post again in 1983 and this time he accepted it, returned to India and joined Allahabad University as its vice-chancellor on January 18, 1984 for three years (1984-87). Well-known for honesty, sincerity, dynamism and innovativeness, he put the University on sound footings, academically, administratively and financially within the three years at his disposal. The First Step he took soon after joining the University was to get its Science and Arts campuses cleaned up and beautifed. It took about six months.