Professor Dhanjay Jhurry was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mauritius (UoM) in March 2017. He is championing the vision of a research-engaged and entrepreneurial university working in close partnership with the public and private sectors as well as with the community to foster innovation. He is putting a lot of emphasis on organizing research at the University around the SDGs and is leading various initiatives to develop human, intellectual, business and social capital through an inclusive and openness approach. Under his leadership over the past 3 years, the University of Mauritius has championed the concept of international education diplomacy and built strong partnerships with Universities worldwide. He held previously (2012 to 2017) the post of National Research Chair in Biomaterials and Drug Delivery under the Mauritius Research Council, while heading the Centre for Biomedical and Biomaterials Research (CBBR), a centre attached to the University of Mauritius which he founded. Prof Jhurry studied at Bordeaux University (France) and received his PhD in Polymer Chemistry in 1992. After spending three years as Research Chemist at Flamel Technologies Company in Lyon, France working on biomedical polymers, he joined the Dept. of Chemistry at the University of Mauritius as Lecturer and was appointed Professor in 2005. Prof Jhurry worked on sucrose-based polymers for his PhD. His mainstream research in polymer science, biomaterials and tissue engineering, nanotechnology/nanomedicine and drug delivery has led to over 75 papers in scholarly journals, with an h-index of 20. He has received various national and international awards and recognition including the first Best Mauritian Scientist Award in 2011, the ‘Grand Officer of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean’ and the ‘Commander of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean’ insignia by the Rep. of Mauritius in 2019 and 2012 respectively as well as the ‘Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques’ insignia by the Rep. of France in 2007. Prof Jhurry is an elected member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) since July 2017 and a member of the Scientific Council of the Francophone Association of Universities (AUF) since September 2019. He is a Board member of the Regional Multidisciplinary Centre of Excellence (Mauritius) since January 2020. He was appointed Chair of the ACU SDG Network in January 2020. He is also a member of Ashinaga’s Kenjin-Tatsujin International Advisory Council (Ashinaga Africa Initiative) and he was Vice-President of the COMESA Innovation Council from 2013 to 2015.
