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Dr. Zimmerman, a Doctor of Philosophy in Information Science, received his Ph.D. from Bar-Ilan University.

In 2006 he was appointed Academic Secretary and Director of Research at IDC Herzliya, establishing the Academic Affairs, Internationalization and Research Support Offices at IDC Herzliya.

Eric provides leadership and service to faculty, staff, and students, assisting in implementing policy and decisions of the IDC academic and governing committees.

His position at IDC allows me to grow the internationalization efforts at an international university; develop the grantsmanship program at an entrepreneurial research university; and design effective and efficient workflow processes for the academic administration of a 21st century university.

Building bridges between peoples drives him and the strategy of his offices. He regards them as the 21st century social engineers.

He possesses comprehensive administrative and professional skills including office management. His particular strengths include strong communication, organizational and analytical skills, especially in aligning institutional aims and objectives with organizational structures and processes.

Over the course of his career, he has acquired on-the-job experience in designing information systems, moderating international seminars, and coordinating multi-partner proposals and projects.

He is an experienced peer-reviewed writer with good analytical skills and am a highly motivated team player, disciplined, patient, reliable, and dependable with a take-charge approach and a proven ability of mastering new technologies and procedures. 

As leader of a working group within an international professional association he also possesses well-developed team-leading skills; he is well able to synthesize different opinions and forge consensus and motivate all members to be fully engaged partners.

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Dr. Frank Levene has more than 35 years successful experience as a UK and International CEO, NED, and an expert in facilitating investments into the USA. Holding dual nationality as a ‘ Brit ‘ and a USA citizen with residence in the USA for 25 years.  An early career built on the best practice techniques from within the fast moving consumer industry. Pioneered, built and delivered bottom-line results by cross- fertilizing multiple disciplines in consumer goods, financial services, retail, professional services, medical insurance, healthcare and PEO services.

A proven track record of profitable corporate development, led start-ups and complete restructuring. Tested across many cultures with results delivered in diverse markets such as Africa, Asia/Pacific, Russia, UK and the USA.President Director, Allianz in various markets in Asia – India, Indonesia, South Korea, and in other roles in Australia and Russia, as General Manager, Medibank, and Managing Director, Ingosstrakh. 

Within Avitus Group charged by the Chairman to help the launch Avitus in EMEA the USA enhanced offering. Targeting companies that wish to establish an investment presence in the USA. Partnered with the USA Commerce Department, Select USA in DC & EMEA, Department of International Trade, UK Export Finance, AMCHAM, BABC and multiple trade associations in general, life sciences and medical devices segments.   

 A trustee TLC a UK based hospice charity. A unique personal network of corporate, academic and government relationships.

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Josh Balster is the Executive Vice President at Avitus Group and has been with the company for over 13 years. Josh studied at Rocky Mountain College and proceeded to work in a fast, upscale environment at Avitus Group; first taking care of new clients, then selling their services, and most recently running the sales team as the Vice President of Sales and growing Avitus Group’s client base over 500% in the last 4 years. Avitus Group has partnerships and locations throughout the United States, as well as globally. Josh and the International Team at Avitus Group focus on assisting business owners expand their companies into the United States by covering them from all angles as they make their US entry. Josh lives in Montana and works out of the company’s Operational Headquarters in Billings, Montana.

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Supriya Kanetkar along with Sushama Kanetkar Represent the State of Pennsylvania in India since 2001. They were appointed as Pennsylvania’s Trade & Investment Representative by the Office of International Business Development at DCED, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

In her role to promote Pennsylvania’s exports to India, Supriya works with Pennsylvania based companies to expand their reach, capacity and global competitiveness by providing various inputs to facilitate exports to India.

Since 2008, Supriya works for foreign direct investment attraction program of Pennsylvania. In her capacity to attract the FDI into Pennsylvania, she works with Indian companies and assists them set up facilities in Pennsylvania.

Supriya has a diverse professional experience from teaching, journalism, consulting MNCs on Corporate Social Responsibility to research and recommending market opportunities & entry strategies to numerous foreign companies.

Prior to taking over the responsibilities of Pennsylvania’s India Representative office, Supriya worked as a Project Coordinator for a New Delhi based business coalition (the Indian arm of Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum UK), which works towards promoting the practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and was engaged in evolving Corporate Partnerships for Sustainable Development. Supriya began her career as a Lecturer in Senior College at Mumbai University and freelanced as political analyst for print media.

Supriya has a Bachelor’s degree in Arts from Lady Shri Ram College at Delhi University, a Master’s degree in Political Science and M. Phil. from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. In her Pre-doctoral research Supriya dealt with changing political trends and emergence of regionalism in Indian politics.

In 2006, Supriya did the The Global Village for Future Leaders of Business and Industry program at Iacocca Institute at Lehigh University, Pennsylvania. She has also been facilitator at Global Village and Global Village on The Move.

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Mr. Vaibhav Parikh is an Electronics Engineer and a Lawyer. He is the Partner in-charge of the Bangalore office of the multi-skilled, research-based international law firm, Nishith Desai Associates (www.nishithdesai.com). He also heads the Technology, M&A and Private Equity practice groups. He is a member of firm’s executive committee.

He has a wide range of experience in corporate and technology transactions. He has advised several private equity and venture capital funds in their investments, specifically in e-commerce, technology, media and life sciences industry. He also has significant experience in M&A transactions including advising on one of the India’s largest e-commerce transaction.
He has been passionately involved in setting up operations and raising finance for several start-up companies. He works closely with TiE, IVCA and Nasscom to help government on startup policy.

He is actively involved in the Intellectual Property Practice and is in charge of industry focus group for IT, Telecom, and Media. He has advised many leading Indian e-commerce companies in their operations from a legal and regulatory stand point.

He has been ranked as Leading Lawyer in Mergers and Acquisitions Practice by IFLR1000 in the year  2017Asia Pacific.

He has been nominated as one of Leading Lawyer in Private Equity Practice by IFLR1000 in the year 2013. He has also been nominated as one of the world’s leading practitioners in ‘Who’s Who Legal’ for Regulatory Communications. He is recommended by Legal 500 as an expert in TMT and competition law in 2014. He has been ranked number one for TMT by Chambers and Partners in 2015.

Vaibhav Parikh is regularly sought after for his extensive experience in advising on technology matters, with an emphasis on corporate transactions.

He has authored several papers and lectured at several prestigious gatherings on a worldwide basis. He has also been acknowledged as a ‘Highly Recommended Lawyer’ for Outsourcing, and Telecom and IT and ‘Recommended Lawyer’ for Intellectual Property by the PLC Which Lawyer? 2009. He has represented NASSCOM at a WTO symposium at Geneva for presenting a paper on ‘Movement of Natural Persons’ in 2001.He is a Charter Member of TiE, Bangalore Chapter and is also on the executive council of the Franchising Association of India.

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Kartik Maheshwari leads the Start-Up practice group at the multi-skilled, research based international law firm, Nishith Desai Associates (www.nishithdesai.com). He is a senior member of the Telecom – Media – Technology laws teams at NDA.Kartik is a leading attorney in various legal, tax and regulatory issues and works across cutting edge complex disruptive technologies / business models including M2M Communication, Internet of Things, smart cities, blockchain technology, privatization of space amongst others.He also has substantial experience in public policy matters and regularly works with the Department of Telecom, Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.He was also an integral member of the team that helped the Government of Mauritius on preparing its ‘National Innovation Framework’ and was invited by them to share his experience on using law and policy as a tool to unlock innovation at the Africa Partnership Conference, 2016.Kartik also continues to author articles and research papers on diverse legal issues which have been published by various publications.

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Mr. Sudish Sharma is the Executive Partner in Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan. Sudish has worked with leading Indian law firms and has an extensive experience of more than seventeen years in rendering legal advice to corporate, Government and quasi-government authorities. He has advised and assisted various leading Indian and multinational corporations across diverse sectors on matters pertaining to joint ventures, mergers, demergers, acquisitions, private equity, legal due diligence, foreign direct investment and entry strategies, restructurings including global restructurings of various multinational companies, regulatory approvals, setting up of industrial plants in India, sale of businesses, distributorship and commercial advisory agreements in India, real estate, employment, compliances, ESOP schemes, drafting, vetting and negotiating of commercial contracts and other corporate transactional work.

Sudish’s skill set includes a deep transactional understanding as well as significant industry expertise across sectors as diverse as education, engineering, fashion, pharmaceuticals, service providers, infrastructure, manufacturing and real estate and he has a commendable track record of advising international and national corporations on complex joint ventures, cross border acquisitions, private equity investments, financing arrangements, international commercial arrangements including in the pharmaceutical sector, various power projects including the setting-up and operations of thermal based power plants and aspects relating to the structuring, documentation, regulatory compliance etc.

Further, Sudish has also advised numerous foreign investors on issues pertaining to joint ventures and acquisition deals. Apart from drafting and negotiating the terms of the required documentation, he has expertise in conducting due diligence and also pre and post investment compliances in line with Indian statutes and regulations.

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Dr James Wilkie is Director of Enterprise & Innovation for the University of Birmingham, CEO for Alta Innovations (the technology transfer company for the University of Birmingham), and CEO of the Birmingham Research Park, which houses two incubators including the BioHub Birmingham®, a fully equipped life sciences incubator.

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After a 30-year stint as a professional editor and journalist that ended on April 30, 2016, Mr Narayanan Suresh formally joined ABLE on May 2, 2016 as its COO. The association was founded in 2003 to represent the interests of the fast-growing biotechnology industry.

For more than 13 years as the Editor of BioSpectrum, Mr N Suresh has worked closely with the biotech sector. Therefore, his rich experience and knowledge are expected to benefit the industry in due course of time. From being  a neutral observer to the biotech industry insider, his second innings now allows him to continue the association with sector.

The journalistic journey of Mr N Suresh began exactly 30 years ago in May 1996 when he joined the Times of India in New Delhi as their first-ever Exclusive Science Reporter, after a grueling 10-month training in Social Journalism with the Times Center for Media Studies( then called The Times Research Foundation School for Social Journalism) in the very first batch.

From a writer, in 1997 he moved to CyberMedia as the Associate Editor of DATAQUEST, the country’s leading IT publication, and it was a transformation, from being just a writer to an Editor-Manager. “The Chairman of Cybermedia, Mr Pradeep Gupta as well as one of its then Directors, Mr Shyam Malhotra believed in my capabilities and gave me many challenging roles that involved creating strong publication brands, says Suresh nostalgically.

At CyberMedia, he was later involved in launching and building the BioSpectrum magazine, the only source of information for biotech industry back then. Later, he also moved on with the brand to MM Activ Sci-Tech Communications when it was acquired by the later. During his long stint as the Editor, he managed and edited various publications within these publishing houses.

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Urvashi Prasad is a public policy specialist at NITI Aayog, the Indian Government’s premier think tank. She is also the founder of Every Voice, a platform that highlights the perspectives, needs, challenges and aspirations of people living in poverty in their own words. Urvashi was previously a Director at Operation ASHA, one of India’s largest tuberculosis control NGOs. She also led the health portfolio of the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation in India for five years. Urvashi is on the governing board of Partnership for TB Care & Control, the largest tuberculosis network in India. She completed her Bachelors in Genetics from University of Birmingham, UK, followed by a Masters in Bioscience Enterprise from University of Cambridge, UK and a Masters in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Urvashi is passionate about gender-related and animal welfare issues. She is also a blogger and writes extensively for several platforms including the Huffington Post and Nextbillion.net.

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Andy Street, CBE (born 11 June 1963), is a British businessman and politician who was the managing director of John Lewis from 2007 to 2016. He is now the Conservative Mayor of the West Midlands, elected in the May 2017 mayoral election. As such, he is the United Kingdom’s first openly gay directly-elected metro mayor.

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Brandi is the Chief Executive Officer of Seven Bridges. She previously served as Senior Vice President of  Product & Science and in that capacity led product strategy, managed the product organization, and oversaw the company’s largest scientific projects. Notably, she guided the creation of the first National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Genomics Cloud pilot, which now supports the analytic needs of about 1,500 researchers investigating petabytes of genomic data collected in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA).

Brandi is a co-chair and founding member of the Blood Profiling Atlas in Cancer project, which started as a part of Vice President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot.  She leads the data working group, where she supports approximately 30 pharmaceutical and diagnostics companies, along with academic partners and regulators, in accelerating the development of safe, reliable, and accurate liquid biopsies.

Brandi is an active member of multiple professional organizations including the Common Workflow Language working group (since 2014), the International Cancer Genome Consortium (since 2015), the Pan Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes project (since 2015), and the American Association for Cancer Research (since 2016).  Previously, she was an active member of the American Heart Association (2008-2010).

Prior to joining Seven Bridges, Brandi was a Postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University, where she focused on uncovering differences in small RNA and protein coding RNA expression, splicing, and editing in purified human motor neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells from healthy controls or ALS patients.  As a graduate student at Tufts University, Brandi’s research helped explain the molecular mechanisms of vascular smooth muscle regulation by microRNAs, and lead to the identification of a novel post-transcriptional mode of microRNA regulation.

Brandi holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Tufts Sackler School of Medicine and a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Rochester. Her work has been published in Nature, Cell, Molecular Cell and other leading journals.

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Tony Hickson BSc, MBA, CLP, RTTP is Managing Director of Imperial Innovations and an Executive Director on the board of Touchstone Innovations plc. Tony is responsible for intellectual property sourcing, licensing and spin-out creation for technologies arising from Imperial College London. Prior to joining the company in 2002, Tony had acquired 15 years of commercial and business development experience in bioscience companies including Wellcome Group, Murex Biotech, Abbott Laboratories and Kalibrant Limited.

He has been a board director or observer for a number of start-up companies including Emcision, Polytherics (now Abzena) and Catapult Therapy TCR Limited, and was instrumental in the creation of companies such as Thiakis (sold to Wyeth, now Pfizer, in 2008), Respivert (sold to J&J in 2010), Circassia (floated on LSE in 2014) and Cell Medica (in advanced clinical studies). Tony is a Certified Licensing Professional, a board director of PraxisUnico and until recently acted as Chairman of the Intellectual Property Board of the European Institute of Technology Climate Change KIC.

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Lars Dahle is the Founder, and has been CEO of Digno since its inception in 2012. He is a thought-leader in the use of Telehealth and Remote Patient Monitoring in Norway and is an advisor to health care policymakers in the parliament of Norway. Government agencies and LocaL Mnicipal bodies. His focus is on understanding and overcoming the organisational inhibitors of telecare providers to start and then scale up the use of Telehealth/Remote Patient Monitoring.

Before Dignio, Mr Dahle held senior management positions in Telecom operators and IT-vendors, such as HP. He holds a MS in Computer Science from the Technical University of Norway  (NTNU) and a MS in Management from MIT, Solan School of Management.

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Ms. Anu Acharya is the CEO of Mapmygenome India, a Genomics company whose vision is “To touch 100 million lives”. In 2013, she introduced the concept of improved healthcare through personal genomics in India. Ever since, she has successfully pioneered the company through growing product lines, expanding affiliate network and has received funding from stalwarts like Mr. Ratan Tata and Mr. Rajan Anandan and more. She is a distinguished alumna from IIT Kharagpur.

Under her able leadership, the company has won several awards and honors: ET Startup Awards 2015 – Women Ahead, Nasscom Emerge 50 – League of 10, Emerging Company of the Year 2015 – Govt. of Karnataka, SMART CEO List of Top 50 Startups, VCCircle Innovative Healthcare Startup 2015, Wall Street Journal’s top global startups 2016, Red Herring Asia and Global 2016, and more.

From 2000 until April 2013, Ms. Anu Acharya was the CEO of Ocimum Biosolutions, a global genomics outsourcing partner for discovery, development and diagnostics, a company that began as a pure Bioinformatics company. Since co-founding the company in 2000, she has led the company through three strategic international acquisitions, two capital raises for equity investments and launch of several innovative products, solutions and services through its proprietary platform called RaaS (Research as a Service). An author of several research papers published in major journals, various articles for journals like Nature, Ms. Anu Acharya recently received early publication approval for her patent for SNaPpy –  the genetic risk prediction algorithm developed in-house at Mapmygenome. She has been invited to various institutions globally (academia as well as commercial) to share her knowledge, expertise and experience in the fields of genomics and entrepreneurship.

Books authored: (list not exhaustive)

1. Software Innovations in Clinical Drug Development and Safety (link)
2. Pharmaceutical Outsourcing: Discovery and Preclinical Services (Pharmaceutical Outsourcing, Volume I) (link)
3. Healthcare ethics and training: Chapter on Impact of human exome sequencing on clinical research (link)
4. Atomic Pohe

Books in which Ocimum/Mapmygenome is covered: (List not exhaustive)

1. From Campus to Corporate
2. The Game Changers
3. Biomedical Innovation in India: Comparison to China
4. Women Entrepreneurs: Inspiring Stories from Emerging Economies
5. Emerging Markets Rule: Growth Strategies of the New Global Giants

Case Studies on Ocimum/Mapmygenome

1. Harvard Business : https://hbr.org/product/ocimum-biosolutions-from-bioinformatics-to-integra/an/W11198-PDF-ENG

Boards

She currently serves as a Governing Board member at the NIBMG (National Institute for Biomedical Genomics). She is on the Board of Mentors for IvyCap Ventures and Advisory Board at Flag A Spot, Action for India & KIIT. She is also a member of CII National Committee on Biotechnology 2016-2017.

Ms. Acharya had served in the past as a Governing Board member at CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research), the Vice Chair of the Global Agenda Council on Genetics for the World Economic Forum, on the board of ABLE (Association of Biotech Led Enterprises), and as President of the Hyderabad chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization.

Awards & Honors

In May 2016, Women Economic Forum honored Mapmygenome her with the award Iconic Innovative Trailblazers of the Decade. In 2015, she won the Women Ahead category and made it to the top 5 innovators list in the Economic Times Startup Awards. In October 2015, Anu Acharya received the FICCI FLO Women Achiever’s Award in the category Innovation through Technology. She was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum for its class of 2011.  The British High Commission also named her part of the “Young Leaders Forum” in 2013.

She was selected by Red Herring Magazine to the list of 25 Tech Titans under 35 in 2006. She was named Biospectrum Entrepreneur of the Year for 2008 and received the Astia Life Science Innovators Award in the same year.

Past Positions & Education

Prior to founding Ocimum Biosolutions, Ms. Acharya has had rich experience in the Telecom, IT and entrepreneurship arenas. She worked for a start-up in the telecommunications space called Mantiss Information and a consulting firm called SEI Information where she helped create a social networking site for entrepreneurs. Her experience is backed by education at premier institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur, India (IIT) and University of Illinois where she has two Postgraduate degrees in Physics and MIS.

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Professor S.S. Vasan is a Senior Business Development Manager (Research & Technical Microbiology Services & Innovation) in a new executive agency of the Department of Health, formed by the merger of Health Protection Agency with ~100 sender organisations such as National Treatment Agency, Public Health Observatories, UK National Screening Committee and NHS cancer and non-cancer screening programmes, Cancer Registries, Quality Assurance Reference Centres, Strategic Health Authorities, Specialised Commissioners, and parts of the Department of Health, including Public Health Marketing.

It aims to help bring about fundamental improvements in the public’s health and wellbeing by focusing its energies on five key priorities:

1. helping people to live longer by reducing preventable deaths from conditions such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and liver disease

2. increasing healthy life expectancy by tackling conditions which place a burden on many lives, such as anxiety, depression and back pain

3. protecting the population from infectious diseases and environmental hazards, including emerging risks and the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance

4. supporting families to give children the best start in life, through working with health visitors, Family Nurse Partnerships and the Troubled Families Programme

5. helping employers to facilitate and encourage their staff to make healthy choices.

Over the last two decades, I have gained expertise and experience in these areas:
– Biosafety, biodefence and biosecurity
– Biotechnology and bioengineerng
– GMOs, and their applications in health and agriculture
– Infectious diseases, especially medical entomology
– Microbiology services including bioprocessing and bioseparation
– New business development and innovation, especially for life sciences, bio/pharma and medical products.

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The Managing Director of Clonz, Narasimha is one of the key founding members of the company. His passion and vision combined with his academic and industrial experience in the world of Proteins (Proteomics) is the driving force of the company towards developing affordable bio therapeutics.

Narasimha’s Research experience in Cancer Biology at CCMB (Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology) helped him to contribute through his work at a USA based MNC as Product Manager for its Indian subsidiary and  also as a Group Leader – Proteomics & Genomics for a reputed CRO, prior to the birth of Clonz.

His wide exposure to countries like Malaysia, Korea, Thailand, China, France, Germany, Switzerland, and USA on various business assignments is also helping in positioning the company.

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Salman Rahman has a career in biomedical research spanning over 25 years working at some of the UK’s leading academic and biomedical research institutions. Salman began his research career studying the biochemistry of gap junctions at the National Institute for Medical Research (MRC) using targeted antibody technology to elucidate the structure-function of connexins leading to his PhD in 1991. Following post-doctoral posts at the Thrombosis Research Institute London and at the Centre for Thrombosis and Haemostasis at St Thomas’ Hospital, where he studied the structure-function of disintegrins, Dr Rahman was appointed as Lecturer at King’s College London between 1999-2009 where he investigated the role of the extracellular matrix and disintegrin-metalloproteinase (ADAMs) in regulating vascular cell signalling in the context of angiogenesis and cardiovascular disease. His research with colleagues during this period led to discoveries that would underpin the development of Vasgen.

Dr Rahman has published over 30 papers with esteemed colleagues from the UK, US and China and holds an Honorary Senior Lectureship in the Dept. Cell Biology at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology. In 2011, he co-founded Vasgen, where he is currently the CEO, in order to develop novel therapeutic technologies.

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Dr. Vijay Agarwal is a Senior Consultant Medical Oncologist with over 12 years of experience in Oncology. Prior to joining HCG he was working as a Consultant in Medical Oncology at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, UK.

Having completed his training in Medicine (MD) at Manipal Academy of Higher Education, he travelled to England to specialise in Medical Oncology and worked in various prestigious institutes such as the Royal Marsden Hospital, London; Kings College Hospital, London, Leeds teaching Hospital, Leeds and Queens Centre for Oncology, Hull, and completed his MRCP and Specialist training in oncology (CCT).

 Due to his keen interest in Medical research, he took some time out and devoted himself to cancer research which led to the award of a PhD by Hull York Medical School, UK. He has authored various papers that have been published in peer reviewed international journals and he has presented at conferences around the world.

He specialises in delivering chemotherapy and targeted therapy in solid tumours and strongly believes in practising evidence based medicine with patient centred approach. He keeps himself abreast with the latest developments in Oncology and aspires to deliver the best possible treatment and care to all his patients.

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Andrew has responsibility for ensuring that processes are aligned and optimised to support the introduction and uptake of technologies and best practices. This entails creating an on going dialogue between industry and policy makers to ensure efficient and effective access and payment structures are created and maintained.

In addition to the Market Access portfolio Andrew also leads on the ABHI Ethics and Compliance program. This includes credentialing, Code of Business Practice and Human Rights.

Having graduated with a degree in Applied Physics, Andrew entered the commercial environment and has gained over 20 years experience in the medical devices industry having worked within medical technology divisions of household names such as Thorn EMI, Philips and Bristol-Myers Squibb. He has held roles covering UK and international marketing, market access and business development working with both capital and consumable equipment.

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Anthony Finbow has achieved success over many years as a CEO of technology businesses. Having occupied every seat at the board table: Chairman, CEO, CFO, NXD and Investor Director (for both public and private companies), he is uniquely qualified to assist Leaders and their management teams in meeting and overcoming the most significant challenges that they will encounter on their journey.

He helps Leaders across Europe by providing enlightened and creative coaching support and advice. In addition to coaching services, he provides Leadership education, training and strategy consulting services to independent businesses in the “scale up” phase, to large corporations engaged in significant change and to government.

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Mahesh Kandula  is an entrepreneur with a proven record of founding and managing life sciences-oriented ventures from an idea into advanced clinical trials and commercialization. Inventor of several potential novel molecular entities in various therapeutic areas including Thrombosis, Lipid Disorders, Diabetes, CNS, Asthma, Cancer, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Hypertension and Liver Cirrhosis.

Sole inventor of more than 100 novel drug molecules and are currently at various stages of non-clinical and clinical development and, are also under strategic collaboration with multinationals in different geographies for advancing the lead candidates to obtain global regulatory approvals for marketing.

Experience in deal-related activities in all fields of life science businesses. Highly motivated individual with an ability for multi-tasking both individually and as part of a team.

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Jon has 30 years experience working in the life sciences, during which he has undertaken a wide range of roles in industry and academia. These included co-founding CTM BioTech, which offered a range of contract services from early-stage process development and pre-clinical produc – tion to later-stage project management, and working for several years as a life sciences management consultant.

Jon holds a BSc in Microbiology with Genetics and an MSc in Medical Microbiology from the University of London, and an MBA from the Open University. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Medical Laboratory Sciences in Bacteriology.

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Rajlakshmi Borthakur (Raji) is the founder and CEO of TerraBlue XT, which is an award-winning healthcare startup based out of Bangalore. She has about 18 years of experience in IT and has worked at Infosys, Ernst & Young, Sapient and Virtusa before starting her own venture in 2015. She has recently won the Innovate for Digital India Challenge 1.0 that saw participation from 1900+ individuals and startups from all across India. Currently, Raji and her team of experts are working on an innovative patent-pending solution called TJay for the prediction, detection and proactive management of epilepsy.

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Dr. BS Ajai Kumar is the chairman and CEO of HCG. Dr. Ajai Kumar founded HCG to realize his vision of making advanced cancer care accessible to all. He has been the driving force behind HCG’s growth since inception. He has served as the CEO since 2005.

Dr. Ajai Kumar’s contribution to the field of cancer care in India as well as his successes as a first generation physician entrepreneur has been widely recognized. He has been awarded the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the CII Regional Emerging Entrepreneurs Award, and the BC Roy Award by the Indian Science Monitor. He is also a recipient of the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award.

Dr. Ajai Kumar has been a practicing oncologist in the US and India for over three decades. He completed his residency training in Radiotherapy from the MD Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute of the University of Texas, and his residency training in Oncology from the University of Virginia Hospital, Charlottesville. He received his MBBS from the St. Johns Medical College, Bangalore.

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Fiona is an entrepreneurial Chief Executive who has successfully established and grown biotechnology businesses. She has led Absynth Biologics since 2008 to advance the Company’s technology platform and pipeline; comprising vaccines to prevent bacterial infections caused by S. aureus and C. difficile. Previously Fiona co-founded the anti-infectives company Novacta Biosystems and was Chief Executive until late 2007. In her early business career Fiona founded and managed Healthcare Ventures Limited, a European incubator company, for the Rothschild Bioscience Unit and J&J Development Corporation. Her broader interests are in supporting entrepreneurs with early stage businesses, working on expert panels with BBSRC, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Biotechnology Young Entrepreneurs’ Scheme and the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst. A 2017 finalist in the InFocus Women in Innovation’s awards, Fiona has a PhD in Biochemistry (Kent) and an MBA from London Business School.

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Hitesh Thakrar is a Partner of Syncona Investment Management Ltd. He is an experienced investor in the sector, having spent over 20 years investing in public global equities in the life sciences, technology and the innovation sectors.

He has worked at various institutions in equity research and Fund Management from ADIA, the sovereign wealth Fund of Abu Dhabi, JP Morgan, Aviva Group, Dresdner Bank and New Star Asset Management. He has a strong track record, rated AA manager and was also a top 1 percentile manager in global equities. He is on the Board of Desktop Genetics, a CRISPR IP library company, backed by Illumina and is an angel investor in early stage Innovation companies. He is also on the Investment Committee of the LBA Scale Up Innovation Fund.

Hitesh holds a degree in Chemistry from Kings College, London, MBA from Cranfield University and CFA, the American Association of Investment Analysts.

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In charge of Quantumzyme’s science and strategy, Naveen comes with over 20 years of scientific & entrepreneurial experience in the drug discovery industry across the USA, Australia and India.

He has published several research papers and the most notable was published in Nature in July 2017 with a few more interesting discoveries in the pipeline for the year.

Naveen is an entrepreneur and hands-on executive officer with extensive knowledge of Pharma, Healthcare, regulatory and medical devices scenario in India. Solid Healthcare, Life Sciences background known for strategic and focused approach, with extensive accolades for establishing creative strategies for optimizing internal operations, financial returns, limiting risk, creating lean teams, and external customer service and output.

Prior to founding Quantumzyme, he served as the CEO of Cryo Stemcell and prior to that as Director at Philips Research, where he was associated with a portfolio of opportunities for new business creation in healthcare and energy. In his previous roles, he has risen through the ranks – from being a bench worker at an Australian research institute to heading the strategic business unit of an American drug discovery informatics company. He has conceptualized and developed novel solutions for accelerating drug discovery and directed teams consisting of experts from different domains including chemistry, proteomics and systems biology. He has been instrumental in conceiving new ideas that are the basis for the company’s patent portfolio.

Has been a speaker and presenter in several international conferences.

• World Congress for Preventive and Regenerative Medicine, Taiwan.
• ABLE Bioinvest
• Bangalore Bio
• Bio Partnering Europe, London, UK.
• Bio North America, Vancouver, Canada.
• Beyond Genome Conference, San Diego, USA.
• IBM High Performance Computing conference, Hyderabad, India

Guest Lectures in several institutions like:

• IIT Madras
• University of Virginia
• University of California, San Diego
• Indian Business Academy, Bangalore, INDIA

Advisor – Board of Studies at:

• Welingkar Institute of Management
• Department of Biotechnology, SDM Group of Institutions

Previous engagements:

CEO – Cryo Stemcell

Overview of the profile:

Turnaround of the company from a Stem cell banking service provider to become a healthcare company and developed the roadmap and business plan for next level funding. Initiated PRP therapy and Hospital partnerships with new customer acquisition and sales team mobilization pan India.

Director – Philips Research Asia

Overview of the profile:

As Director Business Development at Philips Research Asia, Naveen was involved in identifying and developing technology ventures for spin-ups, spin-ins (technology acquisition) and spin-outs in Philips. He has successfully developed and managed a portfolio of opportunities for New Business Creation across Healthcare and Energy relevant for India, emerging markets and globally.

CEO – Polyclone Bioservices

Overview of the profile:

Founded Polyclone and lead the company as a CEO and successfully forged Drug Discovery Alliances, developed markets for Genomics and Proteomics services, Virtual Screening and Research Information Systems.

• Responsible for developing a Govt. recognized R&D unit
•  Successfully raised R&D Grants from various national and international agencies
•  Managing research projects from start to finish in various areas of cancer genomics
•  Filing of the first patent for a cancer target

Principal Consultant, Life Science – SysArris Inc, USA

Overview of the profile:

Initiated and implemented Bioinformatics services for SysArris. Established niche offerings and positioned the company as a leading provider of consulting, technology, outsourcing and applied research services for pharma and biotech industry.

RESEARCH

CRC for Diagnostics Technologies (CDT) Brisbane, Australia Summary:

CDT is an A$40 million/yr. Co operative research center and a consortium of academic partners and members of Australian Diagnostics Manufacturers Association, sited at Brisbane. This Project involved developing a novel Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) based DNA diagnostic assay, utilizing the Amplification Refractory Mutation System (ARMS) principle for the detection of single gene mutations.

EDUCATION

MSc, Applied Science (Life Science) Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, AUSTRALIA BSc, Microbiology, Bangalore University, INDIA

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Phillip D’Costa is an experienced Partner specialising in commercial, fraud, IT and financial services dispute resolution, arbitration and ADR. Phillip has been ranked as a leading individual for UK and India dispute resolution in Chambers Global 2014 and foreign expert in Chambers Global 2015.

Key areas of practice:
• Commercial – Litigation & Arbitration, jurisdictional issues, partnership/LLP, contractual claims, shareholders, Technology, director’s duties and insolvency;
• Civil Fraud – Company investigations, restitution claims, misrepresentation, asset tracing, freezing & recovery, supply chain fraud, employee fraud;
• Financial Services & Regulatory – Securitisation, asset finance, leasing, share fraud, miss-selling, derivatives and structured products, money laundering, regulatory, compliance;• Has a particular interest in arbitration and transactional work involving India and has advised on a number of disputes and transactions involving India or Indian Companies, Families and Individuals.

Specialities:
Civil Fraud – Company investigations, Freezing Orders, Fraud investigation and Asset tracing.

Commercial – Litigation & International arbitration, jurisdictional issues, partnership and LLP advice and disputes, IT & IP disputes, contractual claims, shareholders disputes, Asset Finance & Leasing, Cross border transactions, Insolvency and Licensing.

Financial Services & Regulatory – miss-selling, money laundering, regulatory, compliance.

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Shobha Vijayaraghavan has 20 years of business experience in Life Sciences – Identifying, building and monetizing value in the organization: from ideas to products to platforms.

Her experience and expertise include:

* Seamless and continuous integration of information and analysis of the market and clinic with in-house scientific knowledge to enhance research programs and product propositions.

* Deal-making, out-licensing and collaboration experience with large pharma and research organizations – benchmark deals with above average terms

* Valuation and value building, including strategizing for growth and funding.

* Portfolio assessment, prioritization and planning, based on intensive analysis of market and clinic as well as a thorough understanding of the strengths, differentiation and gaps in the portfolio.

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Andrew Fried is IBM Life Sciences Leader for Europe.

Andrew helps clients address industry imperatives and save lives through the power of cognitive insights.  He works with clients to advance the next generation of discovery and development, acting on insights to drive value, enhance relationships across the ecosystem and empowering people to make better decisions.

Prior to transferring to Europe in July 2015, Andrew was IBM’s Life Sciences Leader for China. While in China Andrew worked with many leading multi-national companies and several Chinese Life Sciences companies who were leaders in their respective segment.

Before joining IBM in 2000, Andrew had a successful 14-year career with a leading strategy consulting company.  He graduated from Melbourne University with a Bachelor of Arts, and Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) with a Bachelor of Business.  Andrew has a Masters of Business Administration from the International University of Japan and is a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia. He was a three-term board member on a government enterprise with assets of over $350M. He was a founding director of a successful dot.com start-up in the early 2000s.

Andrew is an advocate of sport and fitness as a gateway to good health.  He is passionate about the role of genomics in identifying both the cause of disease and personalized solutions.

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Dr. Aman Puri assumed charge as Consul General of India, Birmingham on 22 February, 2017. He is a member of the Indian Foreign Service, having joined the service in 2003. He served at the Indian Mission to the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg, based at Brussels, from 2005-08. He served at the Passport Office in Chandigarh for little over a year from 2009-10.

Subsequently, he held the office of Deputy Chief of the Protocol (Ceremonial) from 2010-2013, and his responsibilities included organising the foreign visits of Prime Minister of India, and the incoming visits at the level of Heads of States/Heads of Government, Vice Presidents and Foreign Ministers.

Dr. Puri was the Regional Passport Officer, New Delhi from 2013-16, during which period many citizen centric measures were implemented by the Ministry of External Affairs.

Most recently, he had brief stints as Director in the Multi-lateral Economic Relations Division, followed by the Northern Division of the Ministry of External Affairs. The Northern Division deals with India’s relations with Nepal and Bhutan.

Dr. Puri (born 1976) did his schooling from St. John’s High School, Chandigarh, and qualified as Dentist from Dental College based at Amritsar.

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Dr. Vishwas is a molecular virologist with over 18 yrs experience in bio/pharmaceutical discovery research at leading Indian pharmaceutical companies. He was associated with the discovery & pre-clinical development of 2 NCEs and also helped establish the protein therapeutics research center of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals at Neuchatel, Switzerland. Dr. Vishwas has concieved & developed the eSAME technology platform of Seagull BioSolutions.

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Theodoros N. Arvanitis is a Professor of e-Health Innovation and Head of Research at the Institute of Digital Healthcare, WMG, at University of Warwick. He also holds the post of co-Director of the West Midlands AHSN Digital Theme. He received his RT (BSc) degree (medical radiological technology) in 1990, from the Technological Educational Institute of Athens, Greece, and his DPhil (biomedical engineering) in 1997 from the University of Sussex, UK. His postdoctoral work at the University of Sussex included a lab director/research fellow post at the Trafford Centre for Medical Research (1995) and a full-time lectureship in the School of Cognitive and Computer Sciences (1995-1998). In 1998, he joined the School of Electronic, Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Birmingham, UK, as a full-time Lecturer (1998-2003), Senior Lecturer (2003-2007) and subsequently Reader in Biomedical Informatics, Signals and Systems (2007-2013). His research interests span the areas of biomedical engineering, neuroimaging and health informatics.

Professor Arvanitis has a substantial academic publication record (h-index= 24 with a total of 1727 citations @ scholar google, 1 Book; 4 Book Chapters; 2 Patent filings; 81 full papers in refereed journals; 28 abstracts in refereed journals; 165 publications in refereed conference proceedings, 58 publications/keynote talks at un-refereed conferences and events, 11 guest editorials in journals, 21 published research reports and newsletters), while he has received research funding from national (UK), European and international governmental funding agencies, charities and industry. Theo has been involved in UK (BSI) and EU (CEN) standardisation work, while he has recently contributed work in various working groups of the US National Cancer Institute Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (CaBIG) effort. He is a Charted Engineer (CEng), Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (FRSM and a member of various scientific and professional groups (IET, AMIA, NYAS, RCS, ISMRM). He recently took the role of Joint Editor-in-Chief at the Digital Health open access peer-reviewed journal, published by Sage Publications, UK.

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Chris is a partner in the Oxford office who specialises in intellectual property and commercial law, and EU and UK competition laws. He trained at a multinational law firm, qualifying into the commercial department in 1986. He joined the firm in 1990 and became a partner in 1992. Chris is particularly known for his work in the life sciences, publishing and engineering sectors, and for universities, research councils and their spin-out companies.

One of only ten UK lawyers who are highly recommended for patent licensing in IAM 1000: The World’s Leading Patent Practitioners, Chris is described as ‘extremely strong’ and as having ‘an assured command of the life sciences, publishing and engineering sectors’. He is also a Chambers UK leading expert and is rated in band 1 for intellectual property by both Chambers UK and The Legal 500. Client quotes in Chambers UK 2017 describe Chris as having ‘a brilliant grasp of commercial IP matters’.

Chris chairs the life sciences stream of the new IP Transactions: Law and Practice course run by the UCL Institute of Brand & Innovation Law, for which he delivers the patent licensing seminar. This course was highly commended in the Law Society Excellence Awards 2013.

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Manish is responsible for providing a strategic vision to NSDC in ensuring that the team moves cohesively in one direction towards achievement of the Prime Minister’s Skill India Mission. Manish also represents NSDC at domestic and international fora. He is also the official spokesperson for NSDC.

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Raghav is a strategic, execution focused and entrepreneurial business leader, with proven track record in the consumer, internet and management consulting industries in India, south-east Asia and Europe. Have led three consumer internet businesses in India – Coursera, BlaBlaCar and Sucré Patisserie – and successfully created new spaces in the consumer domain. Have over 19 years of experience across Coursera, BlaBlaCar, Sucré Patisserie, Booz & Co and Technopak Advisors.

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Francisco Marmolejo is the World Bank’s Lead Tertiary Education Specialist and Coordinator of its Network of Higher Education Specialists. He serves as the coordinator of the internal thematic group on higher education, which helps facilitate the exchange of ideas on higher education initiatives across the globe.

Previously, he served as founding Executive Director of the Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC), a network of more than 160 higher education institutions primarily from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, based at the University of Arizona (UA), where he also worked as Assistant Vice President.

At UA, he was Affiliated Researcher at the Center for the Study of Higher Education and Affiliate Faculty at the Center for Latin American Studies.

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Nathan Andrews believes in Working to deliver on the brand promise to all stakeholders while ensuring customer delight as well as the financial success of every business within the city. To make Lavasa India’s first hill city the preferred destination for residents, students and tourists. A city of learning, art and culture with a quality of life unparalleled in the country.

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Professor Mammo Muchie holds a DPhil in Science, Technology, and Innovation for Development (STI&D) from the University of Sussex. UK. He is currently a DST/NRF rated Research Professor at the Faculty of Management Sciences, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa. He is a fellow of the South African Academy of Sciences and the African Academy of Sciences. He is also currently adjunct Professor at the Adama Science, Technology University, Arsi University, Addis Ababa University and University of Gondar, Ethiopia. He has been senior research associate at the SPMTDC programme and also has become Senior Research Associate at the TMD Centre of Oxford University.

He is collaborating with researchers (DILIC) on the potential research areas of Africa-China industrial high-technology sectors. He has been invited as Associate Faculty professor at Sussex University, UK for the next three years; at the University of Economics in Prague as visiting professor, Jawarahal Nehru University India, Tonji and Shanghai University, China; Honorary Professor Jiaxing University, China, Assistant Professor Amsterdam University, Visiting Professor Carleton College, USA; Principal Lecturer, Middlesex University, Professor, Aalborg University; Part–time Lecturer, Cambridge University; Honorary Professor UNISA. Professor Mammo held various positions globally, including the Director of the Research Programme on Civil Society and African Integration at the then University of Kwa Zulu-Natal; board member at the North Western University, Chengdu, China.

He is currently the chairman of the advisory board of African Talent hub of the Community Interest Company (registration no.10461990) to raise funds for making Africa the talent, innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity and knowledge hub of the world. He has been appointed as special distinguished advisor to the Africa Union’s Student Council and a mentor for the African Entrepreneurship award. He has initiated the African Unity for Renaissance and Knowledge Exchange series of conferences since the last six years. He is a founding scientific advisor to ´the African Solar network, founding chairman of the Network of Ethiopian scholars. He has lead the SIDA, Sweden funded research on engineering design and on transformative innovation for African integrated development and educate on public media to speed up the creation of innovative and renascent Africa. He is also a co-founding member of the Nano Technology Institute in TUT leading the innovation side of the research.

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Sabeena Kalla is the Scientific & Evaluation Director of Eurasanté.
For more than 10 years, she has been actively involved in the creation of more than 50 companies (SME) based on cutting edge technologies from regional laboratories & companies involved in the healthcare and nutrition sector. She helps regional and European entrepreneurs to develop and bring to market innovative products, services and processes which have a strong environmental value and can be replicated and multiplied across the EU and at an international level.

Mrs Kalla began her career in 1992 at the LFB, an international player in the plasma-derived medicinal products area, with recognized expertise in plasma fractionation. She has been developing numerous projects relative to purification of Immunoglobulins from plasma fractionation.

She is a postgraduate in Cellular and Molecular Engineering, in Macromolecular Chemistry and has a Master of Business Administration. She led research Programs at the Pasteur Institute of Lille (peptide synthesis) and at the LFB (Immunoglobulins).

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Souvik Bhattacharyya graduated from Jadavpur University, Kolkata with a Bachelor’s degree (1981), MS (1985) from University of Cincinnati, USA and PhD from Texas A&M University (1991), USA – all in Mechanical Engineering specializing in thermal sciences. After a post-doctoral research stint at TexasA&M, he joined the faculty of IIT Kharagpur in 1991 where he was Dean (Students’ Affairs) during 2009-2012 and has been a Professor of Mechanical Engineering since 2003, Professor (HAG) since 2009. He also held faculty position at University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand during 1998-2000. He served as the Vice-Chancellor of Jadavpur University, Kolkata during August 2012–October 2013 and as Deputy Director of IIT Kharagpur during 2013-2016. Currently he is the Vice-Chancellor of BITS Pilani. Prof Bhattacharyya is a Member of the Research Council of CSIR-CGCRI, the General Council & Executive Board of ISM, Dhanbad and the Civil & Mechanical Engineering Project Advisory Committee (PAC) of SERB, DST.

 Dr Bhattacharyya has been on the Editorial Boards of International Journal of Power and Energy Systems and Journal of Nano Energy and Power Research. He is an Associate Editor of the international journal Alternative Energy and was on the Editorial Board of Energy Conversion and Management during 2007-2013. He was a member of the Committee on Fast track scheme for young scientists, DST during 2007 –2012. His research interests include heat transfer enhancement, thermodynamic optimization, energy engineering, natural refrigerant based transcritical heating-cooling systems, and natural circulation loops. A recipient of ASHRAE Best Paper Award, Dr Bhattacharyya has published about 220 research articles in indexed international journals and conference proceedings and is a co-author of the celebrated Heat Transfer text with J P Holman. 

He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), National Academy of Science, India (NASI) and WB Academy of Science & Technology.

He is known as an adored teacher among the students of IIT Kharagpur and was the first recipient of the Outstanding Teacher Award of Indian National Academy of Engineering in its inaugural year in 2013.

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Kishore Balaji has been working across multiple verticals, in many roles helping organisations build their strategies & businesses.

The spaces he has been engaged in so far ranged between Education, Training, Employability, Rural Dev, ICT for SMBs/ SMEs, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Nation Building projects among others, acorss South Asia and APAC.

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Dr. Chandra Bhushan Sharma, the present Chairman of the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), is Professor of Education at the School of Education, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi.

He has taught for three decades and sat on many national committees and commissions constituted to advise governments and institutions. His expertise is in policy making from school to higher education especially distance mode education. He was one of the three member committee constituted by the Government of India to draft the Distance Education Council of India Bill. He has also been on the committee to suggest revamping of teacher education in India.

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