Life Under the Microscope and Beyond

Virtual

How does an abiding love for knowledge lead to break-throughs in pathology? How can technology play an empowering role in medical education and healthcare delivery, in advancing the progress of medical science? What does research at the cutting edge of pathology entail, in our current times? And, in the final analysis, do humanity and humility score higher than technical expertise? Episode 7 of Chicago Dialogues examines these and other questions, through the life and work of Professor Vinay Kumar.

Speaker Profiles

Vinay Kumar

Dr. Vinay Kumar is the Lowell T Coggeshall   Distinguished Service Professor of Pathology at the University of Chicago.   He did his MBBS from Amritsar and MD pathology from AIIMS, New Delhi After completing his MD, in 1972, he was offered a faculty position in Pathology at Boston University School of Medicine by  Dr Stanley Robbins. He moved to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas in 1982 and was promoted to full professor with tenure in 1983. He was appointed Charles T. Ashworth Professor of Pathology in 1984 and subsequently the Vernie A Stembridge Distinguished Professor of Pathology in 1994.  From 1997 to 2000, he also served as the Associate Dean for Medical Education. During this tenure he initiated major curricular reforms.  In March of 2000, he moved to University of Chicago as chairman of department of pathology, a position he held until Dec 2016 

Dr. Kumar has made seminal contributions in two areas of medicine: basic research and education. His research led to the identification of Natural Killer cells, a novel subset of lymphocytes that act as the first line of defense against virus infections and tumors. Dr. Kumar is  deeply interested in education of medical and graduate students, having served as the Pathology Course Director at both Boston University and UT Southwestern at Dallas.  Along with the late Drs. Stanley Robbins and Dr. Ramzi S. Cotran, Dr. Kumar has co-authored Robbins Pathologic Basis of Disease and Basic Pathology for the past 40 years.  Currently, he is the senior editor and author of both of these texts, now in their tenth edition.. Together they are the most widely used and influential pathology texts in the world and have also been translated into over 13 foreign languages. In 2020, he facilitated the publication of South Asia edition of Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease. This is the first time any regional edition of Robbins has been published.  In 2020, he and his colleagues published a new book called Robbins Essential Pathology, an interactive on line textbook designed for integrated teaching.

Dr. Kumar has numerous awards for teaching and research, including the Cancer Research Scholar Award from the American Cancer Society and honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists in London.  He was elected as a fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Sciences in 2004 for “pioneering studies on the discovery of NK cells".  He travels extensively to India and around the world to promote medical education reforms. He has particular interests in using technology for medical education and integrating humanities in  medical education. The latter by initiating collaborations between Bucksbaum Institute of clinical excellence (at the University of Chicago) and Delhi University.  

Avik Chanda

Avik Chanda is a bestselling author, columnist, business advisor, and entrepreneur. His book, From Command To Empathy: Using EQ in the Age of Disruption (HarperCollins, 2017), was featured in Amazon India’s Best Reads under Business, Strategy and Management. His latest book, Dara Shukoh: The Man Who Would Be King (HarperCollins, 2019), was on the National Non-Fiction Top 10 Bestsellers List for 10 consecutive weeks, garnered huge critical success, and has been released as an audiobook by Audible. Avik is the Founder and CEO of NUVAH ELINT LLP, a NASSCOM 10,000 incubated startup, and is also a visiting faculty at IIT-Delhi and XLRI.