US-returned academician Aruni Wilson Santhosh Kumar, with more than three decades of academic and administrative experience, has been appointed as the vice-chancellor of Amity University, Mumbai, the varsity said in a statement.
Kumar, who has held the position of vice-chancellor in universities with A+ National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) ratings, has been associated with many accreditation bodies, like the NAAC, NBA, and ABET and other academic committees at the national level.
The PhD from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has worked in the United States for a period of 16 years and has held various positions such as dean of academic affairs, dean for accreditations, co-director of Inland stem cell consortium, co-director of Center for Genomics, director of STEM programme and professor of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
Kumar completed his post-doctoral fellowships in Molecular Pathobiology of Pathogens from the University of California, Davis, USA; Genomics- HapMap from the National Cancer Centre of Singapore; Metabolomics from J. Craig Venters Institute, USA; Human Microbiome from National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA.
His major research focus includes the study of ‘Human Microbiome - role in systemic diseases’ funded by the NIH.
Kumar has to his credit a total of 181 peer-reviewed research articles, four books, 12 book chapters and 18 patents. He has guided 15 doctoral candidates and is currently guiding five candidates.
His academic services include being a sitting member in various extramural funding agencies nationally and internationally. He also currently serves on the editorial board of high impact peer-reviewed journals such as Infection and Immunity, Journal of Bacteriology, PLoS one, Molecular Oral Microbiology, Frontiers in Cellular and infection Microbiology, Frontiers in Medicine, and Frontiers in Public Health.