NEW YORK (TIP): Indian-American professor Rakesh Khurana has been appointed dean of the prestigious Harvard College, becoming the latest addition to a long list of Indianorigin academicians assuming leadership roles at renowned global universities.

Khurana, 46, is currently the ‘Marvin Bower’ professor of leadership development at Harvard Business School (HBS), professor of sociology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), and co-master of Cabot House at Harvard. He succeeds Evelynn Hammonds, professor of history of science and of African and African American studies at Harvard and will assume his new role on July 1. Harvard College is the school within Harvard University that grants undergraduate degrees.

Khurana earned his PhD through a joint programme between HBS and Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1998. Harvard president Drew Faust described Khurana as a “faculty leader who embodies the interconnectedness” of Harvard. “His experiences as a graduate student, an award-winning teacher at HBS, and the master of an undergraduate house give him a unique perspective on the university, and his deep respect for the liberalarts model and the residential education will serve him well as he guides Harvard College,” Faust said in a statement issued on January 22.