Venkat Gopalan obtained a B.Sc. (Chemistry) from University of Madras, India, and a Ph.D. (Biochemistry) from the University of New Mexico (Mentor: Prof. Robert H. Glew). He was then a post-doctoral fellow in the group of Prof. Sidney Altman, Yale University. During his post-doctoral tenure, he was also a visiting scholar for brief periods at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England.

He came to OSU in 1998 and is currently a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry.