Other - BITS Pilani

Prof. R. Mahesh

Senior Professor, Department of Pharmacy,
BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Malaria, Medicinal Chemistry, Neuropsychopharmacology

Administrative Experience

1	Chairman- Institutional Animal Ethics Committee	April,2021- till date
2	Founding Co-ordinator, Central Instrumentation Facility (Sophisticated Instruments Centre and Central Instrumentation Facility)	Oct., 2020- Jan. 2024
3	Member- Campus Level Review Committee for faculty recruitment and promotions	2011- till date
4	Chairman- Department Level Shortlisting Committee for faculty recruitment	Sept, 2014 – Oct., 2024
5	Co-ordinator- Cross Campus Department Committee for Academics	≈ 10 years - Till date
6	Founding Dean, Faculty Affairs Division	May 2011 – May 2018
7	Chief, Community Welfare and Societal Development Unit	August 2010 – September 2012
8	Head – Department of Pharmacy	August 2002 - July 2010
9	Co-ordinator/In-Charge, Central Analytical Laboratory (CAL)	Nov 1998 - July 2010
10	Founding In-Charge, Central Animal Facility	̴ March 2005 – July 2010
11	Resident Warden- Boys Hostel	July 1995- July 2005
12	Student Welfare Division - Nucleus member of the Division –	July 1996 – April 2008
13	Academic Registration and Counselling Division – In-Charge Registration, Substitution and Withdrawals	July 1989 - July 1996

Responsibilities and activities related to some of the aforementioned administrative functions are given below.

Founding Co-ordinator, Central Instrumentation Facility (Sophisticated Instruments Centre and Central Instrumentation Facility)

Created and structured the facility, comprising of two heads namely a) Sophisticated Instruments Centre [specifically focussed on housing high end and sophisticated equipments predominantly for research activities across the institute and partly for demonstration in coursework and b) Central Analytical Laboratory (existing) , which was focussed on teaching extensively and also used for research] , under one Head, which required re-organizing, purchase of equipments, creating new laboratory space for installations, SOPS, making faculty in-charges for each equipments, etc.
New website for the above was created where researchers from within campus, other campuses and outsiders can access the facility and utilize/use the equipments on payment basis through a software driven cashless transaction process.
Plan to equip new instruments was streamlined from inputs from all departments across the institute, including expansion plan.

Dean,Faculty Affairs Division(FAD)

Responsibilities as Dean of Faculty Affairs included creation of office of Faculty Affairs as well as introducing and streamlining various processes and procedures, as given below.
Faculty Appointments: tenured -on-campus, off campus; non-tenured-on-campus, off-campus. Creation of complete Recruitment Process cycle protocol in association with a RPO – for both on-campus and off-campus tenure track faculty recruitment for the 3 campuses in India.
Appointment of Non-tenured (short-term) faculty – processes and related guidelines
Revision of pay structure and removal of disparities in pay.
Guidelines and procedures related to exposure of faculty to universities abroad
Guidelines and procedures related to immersion of faculty in industries in India to enhance faculty- industry engagement
Guidelines related to the appointment of Guest Faculty, DST-INSPIRE fellows at BITS campuses
Revision of policies related to Medical reimbursements, Institutional support for staff and staff spouse Children Education.
Creation of faculty induction kit for new joiners
Implementation of Annual performance Appraisals for faculty and related procedures.
Guidelines for creating Chair Professorships, OPERA awards to attract and retain senior and new faculty, respectively.
Faculty extensions, promotions, regularization, renewal of appointments and related
issues, identification of potential faculty at senior levels through consultants.
Dubai campus: - streamlining and implementation of faculty appraisals, addressing faculty issues with creation of new pay structure, employment terms and conditions, benefits, promotions, faculty recruitment process
Off-Campus programmes: Streamlining the recruitment process, re-designations of existing faculty in line with new positions, creation of practice track for faculty not involved in research, streamlining the process of faculty industry immersion process
Creation of Faculty Affairs Division Website with all information associated with the above and population of information including off-campus and non-teaching staff- appointments, policies, guidelines, opportunities, appraisals, (http ://www.bits pilani.ac.in/university /fad/Policies)

Chief, Community Welfare Society Development Unit (CWSDU)

Streamlined house allotment policy and guidelines and made allotments transparent.
Involved in renovation of several quarters
Infant Care Centre (currently rechristened as Blossoms Kids Zone) was renovated and upgraded
Medical Centre and Medical Shop were renovated and redesigned respectively, with addition of 3 new rooms in Medical Centre with facility of monitoring, observation rooms with beds and related infrastructure, facilitated visit of specialists, enhanced testing procedures with new equipments.
Involved in introducing “best performer Awards” for non-teaching staff, related procedures.
Facilitated procurement of new Critical Care Ambulance, body freezer and new digital Xray machine for local hospital.
Introduced a car pool scheme for students and staff and circular bus transport within campus during new admission reception of reporting students.
Conducted “Passport Mela” for students, staff and their family members as well as their issue, coordinating with Regional Passport Office twice.
Health Camps, Pollution check for all vehicles in campus were conducted.
Medical Centre registration and Medical Shop billing procedures were upgraded.
Involved in facilitating issue of Aadhar Card by organizing camp within campus.
Facilitated creation of 2 new parks for children near teaching and non-teaching staff quarters with play equipments.
Facilitated remodeling of BITS-CO-OP stores Vegetable shop, with provision car parking facility.
Participated and provided inputs for project “Parivarthan” as Member, User Council.

Head, Department of Pharmacy (activities involved in brief other than routine):

Served as Head of the Department for eight years
Member of several committees such as Senate, Recruitment, Research Board, BITS Cooperative stores, Selection, Institutional Animal, Human Ethics, Library, Admissions, etc.
Member, organizing committee for several national and international seminars and conferences.
Renovated most of the B.Pharm. and M.Pharm. Laboratories with UGC-DRS SAP- Level- I and Level – II (five years each) fund support through proposals.
Obtained DST-FIST support for up-gradation of laboratory facilities with new
Curricular Development:

Involved in introducing a new programme Master’s in Public Health jointly offered with Bio-Sciences Group and courses for the degree (was deputy-coordinator and later coordinator for the programme) with funded support from proposal sanctioned by UGC under “Innovative New Programmes” scheme.
Involved in developing several courses at the first degree as well as higher degree level including programme structure for M.Pharm. With specializations in Pharmaceutics and Medicinal Chemistry.
Standardized animal models for the evaluation of co-morbid depression treatment resistant depression namely:
1. olfactory bulbectomy in rats and
2. traumatic brain injury models that mimic human depression state.

Co-ordinator, Central Analytical Laboratory (CAL)

Added new equipments such as HPTLC, HPLC’s, moisture balance, analytical balances, Brookfield viscometer, stability chambers, visual melting range apparatus, etc. with funding from various sources.
Developed Standard Operating Procedures for all analytical equipments in CAL.
Updated the Laboratory Experiment Instruction Manual for all experiments for the course Instrumental Methods of Analysis

In-Charge, Central Animal Facility

Conceptualized, designed, created the new Central Animal Facility with Institutional support including infrastructure development for teaching and research in all relevant disciplines of the Institute. (Currently houses several small animals for research with CPCSEA approval for housing as well as breeding licenses).

Student Welfare Division (SWD)

Nucleus member of Student Welfare Division for 15 years- involved in several developmental activities such as automation of student dues, issue of certificates, standardization of procedure for first degree reception, health club and student’s activity centre (SAC) development, etc.
In-charge- processing and member of scholarships committee of Institute’s merit-cummeans scholarships for several years – involved in streamlining and automation of the process.
In-Charge of Recreational Activities Forum – Streamlined all R.A.F. activities and procedures, developed assets.
Involved in the design and development of squash and badminton courts at Student Activities Centre.

Academic Registration and Counselling Division(ARCD)

a ) In-Charge, substitution and withdrawal from courses since joining as nucleus member of Academic Registration and Counselling Division and later-

b) In-Charge, Registration, which includes Registration of students in programmes of all programmes of the Institute.

Professional Activities

Memberships of Professional Bodies:

Member, Board of Studies, (Pharmacy), DIT University, Dehradun
Member- Selection Committee for JRF/SRF- CSIR
Life Member - Society of Neurochemistry, India
Life Member - Indian Pharmacological Society
Life Member - Association of Pharmacy teachers of India

Referee for Journals:

Chemical Biology and Drug Design – Publisher - Willey
Indian Journal of Medical Research- Publisher - ICMR
Indian Journal of Experimental Biology- Publisher - NISCAIR
Indian Journal Of pharmaceutical Sciences- Publisher- Medknow

Member, Committees:

Member, Research and Recognition Committee, SPP School of Pharmacy &
Technology Management, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Sciences, Mumbai

Integrated first degree

Higher Degree

Doctoral Programmes

WILP

Student Activities

Student Services

Integrated First Degree