Professor Nadimpalli Siva Kumar, a Senior Professor in Biochemistry Department, Former Director Office For International Affairs, Former Head of the Biochemistry Department and present Dean School of Life Sciences, has been selected for the prestigious Fulbright-Nehru International Education Administrators Seminar Award lasting for two weeks and the two-week U.S. visit in 2023 will enable participants to learn about various facets of U.S. higher education, including the types of institutions, accreditation, curriculum development, fund-raising, student services and international education on U.S. campuses, as well as share knowledge on Indian higher education. Topics addressed during visits and meetings at select campuses and organizations will also include research collaborations, faculty and student exchanges, and study abroad.
With over 36 years of continuous service in the University of Hyderabad, he was awarded DAAD Fellowship in 1988 through UGC and deputed from the University of Hyderabad to carry out postdoctoral research at the University of Wuerzburg (Prof. Dr. H. Ruediger, institute for Pharmazie und Lebenschmittel Chemie) and University of Goettingen (Prof. Dr. K. von Figura, Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, Biochimie-II). He was reinvited by DAAD to work as a visiting scientist in the cell biology group of Prof. Dr. Bernard Hoflack, at the prestigious European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg in 1994. Three of his Ph.D. students were also DAAD Fellowship awardees and worked in Goettingen and Greifswald. He was also a recipient of the DBT Overseas Fellowship in 2009.
Prof. Dr. Kurt von Figura, Former President, Goettingen University, Germany
In 2019, he taught in the University of Bremen, Germany as a DAAD Visiting Professor awardee in an international Master’s Program in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and collaborated with Prof. Dr. Soerge Kelm.
Prof. Dr. Soerge Kelm, University of Bremen, Germany
Prof. Siva Kumar contributed significantly to the strengthening of Internationalization at the School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad. He was the recipient of a very highly competitive International Project supported by Volkswagen Research Foundation Germany (2000-2006), with University of Goettingen, developed and Coordinated the First International Research Training Group in Molecular and Cellular Glycosciences with University of Muenster, Germany (Prof. Dr. Bruno Moerschbacher) supported by UGC in India and DFG/DAAD in Germany (with consortium members on both sides). This allowed exchange of Ph.D. students/Master students between both Universities (2010-2016). An MoU generated with University of Muenster is renewed twice, which is very active promoting exchange of students between both Universities.
Prof. Dr. Bruno Moerschbacher, University of Muenster, Germany
He was also as a Professor in Biochemistry Coordinator for the NAMASTE (Networking & Mobility Actions for Sustainable Technology Program, 2013-2017) Project that allowed 7 members (6 students and one faculty) from UoH to visit different Universities in Europe. Partnering with the Freie University Berlin, in its EU supported projects, several students (Masters and Ph.D.) from UoH as well as administrators were able to have valuable visits to FUB in several years. From the School of Life Sciences, an MoU with the Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan allowed students of SLS to carryout part of their Ph.D. work in Taiwan. In 2017 he also initiated, developed and coordinated a GAIN course at the School of Life Science where Prof. Dr. Kurt von Figura, former president University of Goettingen served as a resource person and offered a course for two weeks entitled Glycoconjugates: Role in Biology and Biomedical Relevance that is offered as an elective now to the Master students in SLS by him.
From 2019 two additional NAMASTE Plus projects (New Passage to India) supported by DAAD Germany are in place wherein UoH is partnering. One with Goettingen University (different disciplines) that he coordinates and one with Centre for Modern Indian Studies in Goettingen University being coordinated by a colleague from Social Sciences. Both provided bilateral exchange of students and faculties.
As Director Office for International Affairs for more than 4 years, at the UoH, he was also the Coordinator of the SPARC Program of the Ministry of Education and was also instrumental in setting up International MoUs with highly ranked Universities across the Globe such as the University of Auckland, University of Bordeaux, Freie University Berlin, University of Goettingen, University of Muenster, University of Saskatachwaan, University of Zaragoza. As Director for international affairs, and the experience over the years in internationalization at the UoH, he is also identified as a Coordinator for a team in an EU supported project HARMONY: Internationalization and Virtual Exchange: Borderless between European and Asian Countries (2021-2024). This EU supported project focus is on internationalization strategies of Higher Education institutions in Asian countries with some collaborative Universities in Europe (support is for the visits of UoH team members to other partner institutions and exchange of ideas and develop strategies for strengthening internationalization apart from specific student visits to University of Bulgaria). Additionally, through a huge equipment support provided by the project Coordinator to the UoH he was instrumental in setting up and strengthening the infrastructure at the International Office that is useful for the international students and the OIA. Prominent among these is the development of a Friends Tea House in the SIP building that was recently inaugurated by our Honourable Vice Chancellor and would be useful for the international students in their academic activities.
HARMONY Team members from UNIZAR and UoH with Honourable Vice Chancellor Prof. B. J. Rao, Registrar, Dr. Devesh Nigam, Officers of International Affairs, Officers from Administration and students
He served the University of Hyderabad in various administrative capacities as a member of the Centre for Nanotechnology among others, Director Office for International Affairs and is the Dean of School of Life Sciences and current Chairman of the MoU committee. Specializing in the core area of Glycobiology research, he mentored 20 Ph.D.’s including one international student from Yemen, a highly renowned medical ophthalmologist from LVPEI (Dr. Javed Ali, who also received SS Bhatnagar Prize) and several postdocs. Apart from the two ongoing projects, one from IoE and one EU supported, he successfully completed 16 research projects including two international and published about 100 research publications and about 100 conference presentations (invited talks/seminars, workshops, student presentations) including international Gordon Conferences and international Glyco meetings, several national meetings and visited more than 20 Countries over the years as an invitee and is also a steering committee member of the Asian Community of Glycosciences and Glycotechnology from India. He organized the 6th ACGG Meeting at the University of Hyderabad in 2014 and will be organizing the 12th ACGG Meeting at the University during November, 2023. He also earned several laurels as a teacher and researcher, such as the Prof. M. Sadhaksharaswamy Endowment Lecture Award, TRendys in Biochemistry Oration Award, AP Scientist Award, Fellow of the AP Academy of Sciences, DAAD Fellowship, DBT Overseas Fellowship among others.
At his tenure as Director Office for International Affairs, University of Hyderabad has seen a steep increase in the number of applications from foreign students and currently there are more than 70 foreign students from more than 18 countries pursuing Masters and Ph.D. programs at the UoH as ICCR Fellows and self-supporting students. As an alumnus of the DAAD, he has extensively been involved and invited by the DAAD to promote and strengthen academic tie ups between UoH and the different German Universities.
The Prestigious Fulbright IEAS Award he received now allows the participants that include administrators (vice-chancellors, deans, department heads, directors of international centres or offices, foreign student advisors, registrars etc.) who have substantial responsibility for enhancing the international dimension of their institutions and who wish to build capacity of their faculty and students through international collaborations and exchange and innovative curricular design. The University of Hyderabad has a well-established Office For International Affairs in line with the UGC regulations and the experience gained through this visit should be very useful for further strengthening internationalization at the University of Hyderabad under the NEP 2020 and the current IoE status.