Dr. Chinmay Pandya is grandson of one of the greatest scholars, seers, philosophers of recent times in India – Pt. Shriram Sharma Acharya (1911-1990), who was the founder of All World Gayatri Pariwar fraternity, which has 100 million members and thousands of global centers for social reform. He currently serves as Pro Vice Chancellor of Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya University (DSVV). Following medical studies in India, he trained in the United Kingdom, where he gained Membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (MRCPsych). In London, he rose through the ranks of the British National Health Service and secured the post of Associate Specialist in Older People Services at the West London Mental Health Trust. In this capacity, he managed patients with multiple psychiatric disorders, focusing on the treatment of dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease. He returned to India and DSVV in 2010, heeding an inner calling.
Today, Dr. Pandya occupies multiple roles in the life of his University and beyond. He is Editor of the Dev Sanskriti, an Interdisciplinary International Journal that addresses a abroad range of Indian intellectual interests including Vedic philosophy, culture, psychology, communication, education, Ayurveda, Indian and Eastern studies and religious pedagogies. As Vice President of Indian Yoga Association, he leads efforts to analyse and advance the scientific and philosophical understanding of yoga, meditation and stress management in contemporary contexts. He is Chairperson of the International Festival of Yoga, Culture and Spirituality and has convened more than two hundred national and international colloquia at DSVV on issues ranging from the rights of indigenous people to water desalination. He is responsible for ethos, academic rigour and policy implementation at DSVV.
Dr. Pandya serves on the Governing Body of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR); is a member of the Advisory Council of the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH); is part of the Syllabus Restructuring Committee of the National Council for Teachers’ Education (NCTE); and is one of five institutional leaders from around world, including those from the University of Cambridge, and the University of Virginia, to be a Director of the Global Covenant of Religions (GCR). Apart from being the chairman of Asia’s first and only Center for Baltic Culture and Studies and South Asian Institute of Peace and Reconciliation, he is also the Founder Patron of Rishihood University, India.
He has presented papers, addressed symposia and lectured at the United Nations (UNO) Headquarters in Vienna, Universities of Cambridge, Latvia and Chicago; Lambeth Palace, Royal Methodist Hall, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs); the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs); the Indian Medical Association; the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Nuclear Fuels Corporation (NFC), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of India. He has represented India in the Inter-Governmental meeting of the UNESCO on the issue of Intangible Cultural Heritage, in the Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Interfaith Dialogue in Morocco, served as Board of Trustees of India Development Foundation (IDF) and he is also the member of prestigious National Cultural Fund (NCF) of Ministry of Culture, India. He is also one of the judges of the globally prestigious Templeton Prize Committee and was recently awarded with ‘Bharat Gaurav Award’ in the House of Commons, Westminster, UK. Alongside this, Dr. Pandya continues a busy psychiatric practice, on a pro bono basis.
