NAME:
Bhushan Patwardhan
DOB:
March 9, 1959
CURRENT ENGAGEMENT:
Vice Chancellor, Symbiosis International
University, Pune
THINGS HE LIKES:
BOOK: ‘Freedom from the Known’ by
Jiddu Krishnamurti
MOVIE: African Safari
HOLIDAY DESTINATION: Yercaud, Tamil
Nadu
PASTIME: Writing articles on
popular science
QUOTE: “Keep your windows open for
all the breezes, but don’t be swept off
your feet.” By Mahatma Gandhi
CUISINE: Vegetarian Konkani cuisine
MUSIC: Light music, especially songs
sung by Kishore Kumar
HIS LITTLE SECRET: Reads Indian
philosophy to find the connection
between science and spirituality and is
writing a book on it
NAME:Bhushan Patwardhan
DOB:March 9, 1959
CURRENT ENGAGEMENT:
Vice Chancellor, Symbiosis International University, Pune
THINGS HE LIKES:
BOOK: ‘Freedom from the Known’ by Jiddu Krishnamurti
MOVIE: African Safari
HOLIDAY DESTINATION: Yercaud, Tamil Nadu
PASTIME: Writing articles on popular science
QUOTE: “Keep your windows open for all the breezes, but don’t be swept off your feet.” By Mahatma Gandhi
CUISINE: Vegetarian Konkani cuisine
MUSIC: Light music, especially songs sung by Kishore Kumar
HIS LITTLE SECRET: Reads Indian philosophy to find the connection between science and spirituality and is writing a book on it
At a time when the research world was rife with the turmeric patent controversy, Bhushan Patwardhan’s novel composition to treat musculoskeletal disorders which had turmeric as one of its ingredients received a US patent. More recently, he is experimenting with a far reaching innovation—the university curriculum. He conducted a competition among MBA students to design their own curriculum and after a similar competition nationwide, Patwardhan now plans to take the winning entry to his university’s Board of Studies. The idea is to get it implemented.
Be it research or academic governance, everything that Dr Patwardhan, Vice Chancellor of Symbiosis International University (SIU) does smacks of innovation. “Curricula are usually designed to suit teachers’ requirements and not on what students need to learn. So, there is a lot of junk burdening students that kills their innovative capabilities,” says Patwardhan.
At a time when the research world was rife with the turmeric patent controversy, Bhushan Patwardhan’s novel composition to treat musculoskeletal disorders which had turmeric as one of its ingredients received a US patent. More recently, he is experimenting with a far reaching innovation—the university curriculum. He conducted a competition among MBA students to design their own curriculum and after a similar competition nationwide, Patwardhan now plans to take the winning entry to his university’s Board of Studies. The idea is to get it implemented.
Be it research or academic governance, everything that Dr Patwardhan, Vice Chancellor of Symbiosis International University (SIU) does smacks of innovation. “Curricula are usually designed to suit teachers’ requirements and not on what students need to learn. So, there is a lot of junk burdening students that kills their innovative capabilities,” says Patwardhan.
Shastra to Science
Sometimes heading various commit¬tees at a young age was also a challenge. “I had to sit on the confirmation com¬mittees of my own teachers. That was tough,” he says.
Leading from the Front
His special interest in the administra¬tion and governance of Pune University dates back to his school days. “I stayed on the campus during my summer holidays and met many of the senior professors today, when they were gradu¬ate and postgraduate students, in the university canteens,” says Patwardhan. His maternal grandfather Nanasaheb Vaishampayan was the favourite driver of the first VC of Pune University, Dr MR Jayakar.
It is because of this attachment that after spending around nine years in the industry, he returned full-time to Pune University in 1994. Inspired by noted statistician, Late Prof PV Sukhatme, he led the foundation of Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences (ISHS) at the university, where he worked for the next 12 years. Within a year of joining, he was made a full professor and director at the young age of 36 years. Under him, the school taught everything that medical schools usually do not teach—nutrition, genetics, environment and lifestyle among others. “Prof Sukhatme said that what we do in science has to be relevant to society,” he says.
So, he saw to it that all research done at ISHS had social relevance. In fact, it was the air monitoring study done by his team at ISHS that led to the ban¬ning of the six-seater diesel rickshaws in Pune as their presence increased the risk of cardiovascular mortality. A chance visit to tribal areas made him change the curriculum of the school to include social sciences to the extent of 30 per cent, perhaps a first for any school under the faculty of sciences at Pune Universi ty. Patwardhan believes that it is really important to break the walls of disciplines for holistic learning. He conceputalised many innovative pro¬grammes including masters in public health, open to even non-medical students, which received the UGC inno¬vation grant award.
In 2006, he joined Manipal, where he oversaw the development of India’s most innovative open learning source EduNxt, which mimics a classroom experience with real teachers, set timetables and gives the students flexibility to attend a virtual class or to record it to watch later.
Soon after, on the advice of technocrat Sam Pitroda, he led the establishment of Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine in Bangalore. It was a 17-year-old NGO, which he had to institution¬alise, right from its branding, building a vision, new collaborations and creating a team and professionalising the gover¬nance structure. He completed it in a year and set up India’s first integrative hospital, before joining Symbiosis.
“Symbiosis has so many autonomous institutions. It was functioning like a conglomerate of silos. My endeavour is to integrate them and create a conflu¬ence of faculties, that is, create a sonata out of the silos,” says Patwardhan, who is also giving a large thrust for inculcat¬ing a culture of research and innovation at the university. In just a year, he set up three schools—liberal arts, biomedical sciences and photography. In order to create its own pipeline of teachers, Pat¬wardhan has introduced an integrated masters programme leading to a PhD.
Rich Research
His research over the last 30 years led to some outstanding work in the field of Ayurveda, Genomics, Ethnopharmacol¬ogy, herbal drug technology and drug discovery. He follows reverse pharma¬cology, where research goes from clinic to lab, a new strategy to cut short the drug discovery pipeline and thereby, costs. Patwardhan has eight patents, 10 books and over 100 research publica¬tions to his credit. He coined the word AyuGenomics, a new study to establish a genetic basis for the Ayurvedic concept of Prakruti (body constitution), paving way for custom¬ised drugs and treatment.
Not only has he attracted research funding to the tune of Rs 150 million from agencies like WHO, Ford Founda¬tion, CSIR and Department of Science & Technology, but 18 PhD students also got degrees under his guidance. No wonder, he was invited to be on the boards and research councils of many organisations like National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow; National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) and National AIDS Research Institute, Pune.
Knowledge for A Cause
As a consultant to World Health Organ¬isation, he created an exhaustive report on the existent evidence for how tradi¬tional medicine can be used for afford¬able healthcare. WHO published it as a special issue, Ancient Science of Life. It was his report, brought out as the Con¬venor of the UGC’s national committee for promotion of Indian Higher Educa¬tion abroad that became the precursor to the Foreign Education Bill 2010.
Not just education and health issues, Patwardhan has also been involved in many social and environmental issues. Despite being just one of the two gov¬ernment nominees on the Develop¬mental Plan committee for Pune (rest were elected representatives), he man¬aged to create enough public outcry that helped in saving the hills of Pune from commercial exploitation. He is also associated with Make-a-Wish Founda¬tion, dedicated to fulfilling wishes of terminally-ill children and the elderly.
A driving force behind many innova¬tive academic and research initiatives, Patwardhan successfully brought together India’s top universities, to form Emerging Directions in Global Education (EDGE) Forum, as a quality league to promote highest standards of education and governance by sharing best practices. “This forum emerged from the concern that not a single Indi¬an university ranks among the world’s top 100 universities. The idea is to cre¬ate an Indian version of the Ivy League,” says Patwardhan.
His sustained advocacy in the steer¬ing committee (on AYUSH) of the 12th Plan of Planning Commission that AYUSH (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) should be part of the mainstream bore fruits recently when a joint meeting of AYUSH and biomedi¬cal research was held, a sign of tradi¬tional medicine being integrated into the national health priorities along with bio-medical research. He drove the development of AyuSoft, an intelligent software system based on Ayurvedic knowledge, with the assistance of CDAC and Jnana Prabodhini, to help in the diagnosis and treatment decisions.
As a champion of Ayurveda, he took its flag to many countries including US, Canada, UK, Malaysia, Germany and Korea and conducted talks at interna¬tional institutions such as John Hop¬kins University, National Institute of Health, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard Medical School, Columbia University and Massachusetts General Hospital, King’s College, London and Heidelberg University, Germany.
The inspiration to study Indian tradi¬tional medicine came from his paternal grandfather Ramchandra Bhave who had considerable knowledge of tradi¬tional medicine and people would come to him every Sunday seeking a cure. Patwardhan is presently working on drugs that boost the immune system and slowdown the degenerative pro¬cesses, thereby aging. This innovation could very well change the future of mankind!
As I get set to leave, my eyes fall on the book on his table—The Innovative University by Clayton Christensen and Henry Eyring. Bhushan Patwardhan is surely serious about innovation!
Leading from the Front
His special interest in the administration and governance of Pune University dates back to his school days. “I stayed on the campus during my summer holidays and met many of the senior professors today, when they were graduate and postgraduate students, in the university canteens,” says Patwardhan. His maternal grandfather Nanasaheb Vaishampayan was the favourite driver of the first VC of Pune University, Dr MR Jayakar.
It is because of this attachment that after spending around nine years in the industry, he returned full-time to Pune University in 1994. Inspired by noted statistician, Late Prof PV Sukhatme, he led the foundation of Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences (ISHS) at the university, where he worked for the next 12 years. Within a year of joining, he was made a full professor and director at the young age of 36 years. Under him, the school taught everything that medical schools usually do not teach—nutrition, genetics, environment and lifestyle among others. “Prof Sukhatme said that what we do in science has to be relevant to society,” he says.
So, he saw to it that all research done at ISHS had social relevance. In fact, it was the air monitoring study done by his team at ISHS that led to the ban¬ning of the six-seater diesel rickshaws in Pune as their presence increased the risk of cardiovascular mortality. A chance visit to tribal areas made him change the curriculum of the school to include social sciences to the extent of 30 per cent, perhaps a first for any school under the faculty of sciences at Pune Universi ty. Patwardhan believes that it is really important to break the walls of disciplines for holistic learning. He conceputalised many innovative programmes including masters in public health, open to even non-medical students, which received the UGC innovation grant award.
In 2006, he joined Manipal, where he oversaw the development of India’s most innovative open learning source EduNxt, which mimics a classroom experience with real teachers, set timetables and gives the students flexibility to attend a virtual class or to record it to watch later.
Soon after, on the advice of technocrat Sam Pitroda, he led the establishment of Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine in Bangalore. It was a 17-year-old NGO, which he had to institutionalise, right from its branding, building a vision, new collaborations and creating a team and professionalising the governance structure. He completed it in a year and set up India’s first integrative hospital, before joining Symbiosis.
“Symbiosis has so many autonomous institutions. It was functioning like a conglomerate of silos. My endeavour is to integrate them and create a conflu¬ence of faculties, that is, create a sonata out of the silos,” says Patwardhan, who is also giving a large thrust for inculcating a culture of research and innovation at the university. In just a year, he set up three schools—liberal arts, biomedical sciences and photography. In order to create its own pipeline of teachers, Pat¬wardhan has introduced an integrated masters programme leading to a PhD.
Rich Research
His research over the last 30 years led to some outstanding work in the field of Ayurveda, Genomics, Ethnopharmacology, herbal drug technology and drug discovery. He follows reverse pharmacology, where research goes from clinic to lab, a new strategy to cut short the drug discovery pipeline and thereby, costs. Patwardhan has eight patents, 10 books and over 100 research publications to his credit. He coined the word AyuGenomics, a new study to establish a genetic basis for the Ayurvedic concept of Prakruti (body constitution), paving way for customised drugs and treatment.
Not only has he attracted research funding to the tune of Rs 150 million from agencies like WHO, Ford Foundation, CSIR and Department of Science & Technology, but 18 PhD students also got degrees under his guidance. No wonder, he was invited to be on the boards and research councils of many organisations like National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow; National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) and National AIDS Research Institute, Pune.
Knowledge for A Cause
As a consultant to World Health Organisation, he created an exhaustive report on the existent evidence for how traditional medicine can be used for affordable healthcare. WHO published it as a special issue, Ancient Science of Life. It was his report, brought out as the Convenor of the UGC’s national committee for promotion of Indian Higher Education abroad that became the precursor to the Foreign Education Bill 2010.
Not just education and health issues, Patwardhan has also been involved in many social and environmental issues. Despite being just one of the two government nominees on the Developmental Plan committee for Pune (rest were elected representatives), he managed to create enough public outcry that helped in saving the hills of Pune from commercial exploitation. He is also associated with Make-a-Wish Foundation, dedicated to fulfilling wishes of terminally-ill children and the elderly.
A driving force behind many innovative academic and research initiatives, Patwardhan successfully brought together India’s top universities, to form Emerging Directions in Global Education (EDGE) Forum, as a quality league to promote highest standards of education and governance by sharing best practices. “This forum emerged from the concern that not a single Indian university ranks among the world’s top 100 universities. The idea is to cre¬ate an Indian version of the Ivy League,” says Patwardhan.
His sustained advocacy in the steering committee (on AYUSH) of the 12th Plan of Planning Commission that AYUSH (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) should be part of the mainstream bore fruits recently when a joint meeting of AYUSH and biomedical research was held, a sign of traditional medicine being integrated into the national health priorities along with bio-medical research. He drove the development of AyuSoft, an intelligent software system based on Ayurvedic knowledge, with the assistance of CDAC and Jnana Prabodhini, to help in the diagnosis and treatment decisions.
As a champion of Ayurveda, he took its flag to many countries including US, Canada, UK, Malaysia, Germany and Korea and conducted talks at international institutions such as John Hopkins University, National Institute of Health, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard Medical School, Columbia University and Massachusetts General Hospital, King’s College, London and Heidelberg University, Germany.
The inspiration to study Indian traditional medicine came from his paternal grandfather Ramchandra Bhave who had considerable knowledge of traditional medicine and people would come to him every Sunday seeking a cure. Patwardhan is presently working on drugs that boost the immune system and slowdown the degenerative processes, thereby aging. This innovation could very well change the future of mankind!
As I get set to leave, my eyes fall on the book on his table—The Innovative University by Clayton Christensen and Henry Eyring. Bhushan Patwardhan is surely serious about innovation!
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