Ranbir Chander Sobti

Ranbir Chander Sobti is an Indian educationist, cell biologist. He is a former vice chancellor of the Panjab University, Chandigarh and Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow. He is known to have involved in advanced research in plant genetic studies and has written over 240 articles, and 22 books including ''Essentials of Biotechnology'' and ''Emerging Trends in Biomedical Science and Health''. He is an elected Fellow of several major science academies such as Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, National Academy of Medical Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, India, and Punjab Academy of Sciences. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2009, for his contributions to Literature and Education.

Biography

Ranbir Chander Sobti graduated in Science (BSc) with honours from Panjab University in 1969. He continued his studies at the same institution to secure his master's degree (MSc) in 1970 and a doctoral degree (PhD) in 1974. While doing his doctoral research, he also passed a certificate course in German language in 1971. His career started as a teaching assistant in 1974 at his alma mater where he worked for 28 years. He served the institution in various capacities such as Curator (1975–1976), Lecturer (1976–1985), Reader (1985–1994) and Professor in Cell Biology (1994–2006) when he was appointed as the vice chancellor of the university. In between, he took a hiatus and worked at the University of Miami, Florida as a resident associate professor during two periods, 1976–1980 and 1983–1985. During his stay at Miami, he successfully completed the course of Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) in 1983.

In 2006, Sobti assumed the responsibility as the vice chancellor of Panjab University and continued in the post till 2012. He also worked as the Dean of the Alumni Relations (1998–1999) and Foreign Students (2001–2004), as the honorary director of the Honorary Director of the UGC Academic Staff College (2004–2006) and as the Chairman, Board of Examiners of the Department of Electronics and Accreditation of Computer Classes (DOAECC). In 2012, he moved to Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU) as its vice chancellor and held the position till 2018. When the Indian Science Congress Association conducted their 101st annual session at Jammu, he chaired the session as its general president. He has also served as the director of the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) and as a member of the executive council of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Bangalore. He headed the panel of NAAC which conducted an appraisal on the Tripura University in 2015. He is a member of ''Zaheer Science Foundation'', a New Delhi-based non government organization promoting scientific research and educational reforms, in coordination with government agencies.

Sobti is married to Vipin Khindagi; the marriage took place on 8 October 1975, while he was working as a curator at Panjab University.

Legacy

The Centre of Biotechnology of the Panjab University was established during Sobti's tenure as the Reader of the Department of Zoology at the university and he worked as the founder coordinator of the Centre from 1989 to 1995. His efforts are reported behind the elevation of the Centre into a department in 1995 and he chaired the department till 2005, except for a period from February 2001 to September 2002. While he served as the vice chancellor, the university started 65 industry-oriented courses, established a dedicated post of Dean for the research department, established chairs for contemporary and traditional thought and introduced semester system for all academic courses. It was during this period, the university received over 800 million in research grants and 3 billion in government funding. With the funding, he helped establish regional centres and colleges in rural areas and initiated programs to provide preferential admission to AIDS/Thalassemia patients and single girl child families at the affiliated colleges and university campus and provided free education to orphans and differently abled students. The university also took up the responsibility to adopt 8 nearby villages and set up facilities there for computer literacy, community health and language learning. In 2011, a community radio service under the name, ''Jyotirgmaya 91.2 MHz'', was launched for exchange of knowledge and information among the participating communities and to provide a dialogue platform for them. It was under his vice chancellorship at the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, the institution started its collaboration with Uttar Pradesh Council for Science and Technology (UPCST) and North Eastern Railway (NER), Lucknow Division for innovations in the public sector services. He established the ''Centre for Industry Institution Partnership Program'' (CIIPP), a forum for dialogue between industry representatives and academicians, and also contributed in making the University campus, a smoke-free and polythene-free green campus.

Sobti's early researches were linked to cancer biology and some of his writings, which comprise 22 books and 246 articles, were based on his cancer researches. ResearchGate, an online repository of scientific articles, has listed 156 of his articles and they are reported to have been cited over 2000 times, with an h-index of 18. He has handled several projects for University Grants Commission, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Indian Council of Medical Research, Department of Biotechnology and the Ministry of Human Resource Development and has been a member of the Editorial Boards of journals such as '' Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry'', ''Cytology and Genetics'', and the '' Indian Journal of Human Genetics''. He has participated in several seminars and conferences for delivering keynote addresses; his oration, ''Universities and the innovation cycle'', at the centenary conference of the Association of Commonwealth Universities

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