Manik Talwani obtained Bachelor honors and Masters degrees in physics from Delhi university in India. Subsequently he obtained a PhD in Geophysics from Columbia University and a honorary doctorate from Oslo University in Norway.

Just as he obtained his academic credentials from three continents, his honors and awards also came from three continents. He obtained the Krishnan gold medal from the Indian Geophysical society and a honorary fellowship from the Geological Society of India. He was also The Sackler Dinstinguished lecturer at the University of Tel Aviv in Israel. The European awards include the Wegener  medal from the European Union of Geosciences, the Emile Wiechert medal from the German Geophysical Society and the Ludger Mintrop award from EAGE. He is a fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Arts and Sciences and a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.  Finally, from the U.S., he has received the Macelwane and Maurice Ewing awards from the American Geophysical Union, the George Woollard award from the Geological Society of America, the NASA exceptional scientific achievement award, and he is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union. He is also a honorary member of the Houston Geophysical Society.

His appointments include professorship at Columbia University, and directorship of the Lamont Doherty Observatory. At Gulf Oil he served as chief scientist and he has been the Schlumberger professor of geophysics at Rice university since 1985. He was also director of HARC's Geotechnology Research Institute from 1985 to 1998. Most recently he served for five years as the President and CEO of Integrated Ocean Drilling Project Management International.

Manik Talwani has worked extensively in developing potential field algorithms and studying continental margins. He was Principal investigator of the Apollo 17 gravity experiment on the moon. Currently he is examining the possibility of using gradiometers to monitor CO2 sequestration.