SRM University Amaravati appoints Dr Jamshed Bharucha as Vice Chancellor

Dr Jamshed Bharucha, a distinguished academic leader in the United States, has been appointed as the Vice Chancellor of SRM University, AP - Amaravati, a new research university in Amaravati. He will become the university’s founding Vice Chancellor, departing the lvy League to contribute to the explosive growth and reform of higher education and research underway in India.

As the chief executive of the University, Dr Bharucha’s role will be to provide strategic vision in pursuit of excellence in education, research, and engagement, responding to the complex opportunities and challenges of becoming a globally recognized and nationally transformative institution.

The emphasis will be on multi-disciplinary approaches, for which Dr Bharucha is well-positioned given his own research bridging cognitive neuroscience and music.

Dr Bharucha has held a variety of academic leadership positions, including President of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Provost and Senior Vice President of Tufts University, and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Dartmouth College, where he became the first Indian-American to be named dean of a school at an Ivy League university.

While on the faculty at Dartmouth, he was the John Wentworth Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences, and received the Huntington Teaching Award and the Undergraduate Teaching Special Award (given by the Student Assembly). He is currently a Distinguished Fellow at Dartmouth College.

The Amaravati campus is the most recent, progressive, and ambitious of several SRM University campuses founded by SRM Trust, which has committed up to $460 million to establish the Amaravati campus.

“Dr Jamshed Bharucha is a highly accomplished academic leader and we are thrilled to welcome him as Vice Chancellor,” said Dr. P. Sathyanarayanan, President, SRM University.

“I am confident he will excel in this role not only in light of his wide-ranging experience, deep expertise, and intimate familiarity with our opportunities and challenges, but also because of his passionate commitment to helping universities, and everyone within them, serve the world at large.”

“This is a pivotal moment in time for Amaravati – one full of extraordinary possibilities and opportunities to pursue new knowledge, challenge the status quo, and ultimately serve the greater good by enhancing access to education,” said Dr. Bharucha.

“Such a time calls for a shift in strategic thinking, flexibility, and freedom to encourage and ignite the curiosity of young minds. I am looking forward to hitting the ground running in my mission to keep this university moving ambitiously forward by inspiring our community of students and faculty to realize their dreams.”

SRM University - Amaravati is poised for metamorphosis under Dr Bharucha’s leadership. Under Dr Bharucha’s leadership, SRM University, AP - Amaravati will embark on a new era, laying the foundation for a bright future on the path to academic discovery and lifelong learning.

While the first crop of undergraduates in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at SRM University - Amaravati have just completed their first year of classes, the expansion is just beginning.

The School of Liberal Arts and Basic Sciences has just been launched, and Dr Bharucha will be at the helm in time to welcome them. The university’s commitment to the city planners is to open schools of management, medicine, and law over the next few years, growing the student body to 10,000 in five years and 25,000 in 10 years.

Dr Bharucha majored in Biopsychology for his BA from Vassar College, has a MA in Philosophy from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Harvard University. He also earned an Associate’s Diploma (ATCL) in violin performance from the Trinity College of London (International Exam Board).

He has received numerous research grants from the National Science Foundation in the US, and has been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioural Sciences at Stanford University.

He received the Distinguished Achievement Award from Vassar College, where he serves on the Board of Trustees, and the Pride of America award from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.