Jamshed Bharucha is an Indian-American cognitive neuroscientist who has served in leadership roles in higher education. He is the Founding Vice Chancellor of Sai University, Chennai, and is a member of the

Board of Advisors An advisory board is a body that provides non-binding strategic advice to the management of a corporation, organization, or foundation. The informal nature of an advisory board gives greater flexibility in structure and management compared to th ...

of India's International Movement to Unite Nations (I.I.M.U.N.). Bharucha is President Emeritus of

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

, a college located in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, having served as the 12th President of

during the time of Cooper Union's financial crisis and tuition protests. Prior to becoming President of Cooper Union, Bharucha was Provost and Senior Vice President of

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

and Professor in the departments of Psychology, Music, and Neuroscience. Before his time at Tufts, Bharucha was the John Wentworth Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences and Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

. Bharucha was a Distinguished Fellow and Research Professor at Dartmouth College, where his research and teaching were focused on education

data science Data science is an interdisciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge and insights from noisy, structured and unstructured data, and apply knowledge from data across a br ...

. His research is in

cognitive psychology Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning. Cognitive psychology originated in the 1960s in a break from behaviorism, which ...

and

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...

, focusing on the cognitive and neural basis of the perception of music. He was editor of the interdisciplinary journal ''

Music Perception ''Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by University of California Press five times a year. It was founded by Diana Deutsch. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has ...

.''

Early life and education

Jamshed Bharucha was born in

Mumbai, India Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

. His father Jal Bharucha, a

Parsi Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim conq ...

engineer from Mumbai, and mother Elizabeth Bharucha (born Elizabeth Emily Robinson) a musician from Albany, New York, met at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. His parents were founding members of the Bombay International School, from which Jamshed graduated. Bharucha studied violin in Mumbai, received an Associate’s Diploma in violin performance from

Trinity College of Music Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music and dance conservatoire based in London, England. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. The conservatoire has ...

(London) in 1973, and then continued to study violin at Vassar. Bharucha graduated from

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

where he majored in biopsychology (1978), then received an M.A. in philosophy from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

(1979) and a Ph.D. in

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

(1983). At Harvard he worked with

Stephen Kosslyn Stephen Michael Kosslyn (born 1948) is an American psychologist and neuroscientist. Kosslyn is best known for his work on visual cognition and the science of learning. Kosslyn currently serves as the president of Active Learning Sciences Inc., w ...

, William K. Estes and Roger Brown.

Academic and administrative career

Dartmouth College

Bharucha began his academic career at

, where he was John Wentworth Professor and rose from Associate Dean for the Social Sciences to Deputy Provost to Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences. He was the first

Indian American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

dean of a school at an

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

institution. While in the Dartmouth administration, he established the Dartmouth Brain Imaging Center. His principal faculty appointment was in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, but he also taught in the Program in Linguistics & Cognitive Science and the Program in

Electroacoustic Music Electroacoustic music is a genre of popular and Western art music in which composers use technology to manipulate the timbres of acoustic sounds, sometimes by using audio signal processing, such as reverb or harmonizing, on acoustical instrumen ...

(now called Digital Musics). As an academic administrator, he launched initiatives on teaching and research, as well as their integration in the form of active learning, encouraging undergraduates to get involved in research with their professors. After spending 2015-2016 at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, Bharucha was appointed Distinguished Fellow at Dartmouth, where he taught in two departments: Education and Psychological & Brain Science.

Tufts University

Bharucha moved to

Tufts Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

in 2002 to assume the position of Provost & Senior Vice President. As Provost, Bharucha was the chief academic officer of the university, overseeing the seven schools, the Tisch College, the Institute for Global Leadership, the Fares Center and the Clinical & Translational Research Institute. Bharucha launched the Summer Scholars program, which provides opportunities for undergraduate students to work on collaborative research with faculty across the university and its affiliated hospitals. He also launched the University Seminar, a cross-disciplinary course, open to undergraduate, graduate and professional students.

Cooper Union controversy and investigation by New York state Attorney General

Bharucha was appointed as the twelfth president of

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

effective July 1, 2011. His tenure at Cooper Union was marked by a financial crisis and tuition protests. An investigation by the New York State attorney general's office ensued into the institution's decision to charge tuition for the first time in its history and other financial decisions made by the Trustees. This eventually led to the attorney general's office brokering a settlement of a lawsuit filed by a group of students, alumni and faculty. On June 10, 2015 five of the trustees, who had been supporters of tuition and were opponents of the settlement, resigned. The following day, Bharucha announced that he would be resigning to become a visiting scholar at

SRM University - Amaravati

Bharucha served as the inaugural

Vice Chancellor A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system. In most Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, the chancellor is ...

of SRM University, Amaravati, a new university in the newly designed capital city (

Amaravati Amaravati () is the capital of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is located on the banks of the river Krishna in Guntur district. The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone at a ceremonial event in Uddandar ...

) of the state of

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

in India. He established a partnership with Minerva Schools at KGI to adopt their

active learning Active learning is "a method of learning in which students are actively or experientially involved in the learning process and where there are different levels of active learning, depending on student involvement." states that "students partici ...

platform.

Sai University, Chennai

Bharucha serves as the Founding

of Sai University, a new university being launched in the city of Chennai.

References

External links

SRM University, AmaravatiOfficial websiteArchived messages from Cooper Union
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bharucha, Jamshed Alumni of Trinity College of Music Tufts University faculty Vassar College alumni Members of the Vassar College Board of Trustees Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni 1956 births Dartmouth College faculty Music psychologists Living people Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Indian emigrants to the United States American people of Gujarati descent Cognitive musicology American people of Parsi descent American Zoroastrians Parsi people Parsi people from Mumbai Presidents of Cooper Union Indian American