The TOI Correspondent from Washington: Sunil Kumar, who is the 14th president of the 170-year old Tufts University located outside Boston and the first person of colour to hold the post, has traversed through several US universities, including 14 years at Stanford Business School and five years as dean of university of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Kumar also served as provost and senior vice-president for academic affairs at Johns Hopkins University (2016–2023).Born in Karnataka and son of a police officer, Kumar earned his engineering degree from National Institute of Technology, Surathkal, in 1990, followed by a engineering masters in computer science and automation from IISc in Bengaluru in 1992.Tufts has other strong desi ties too. Indian alumni from Tufts include writer and MP Shashi Tharoor, who earned multiple degrees from Tufts’ Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and actress Ameesha Patel, who graduated from Tufts with a degree in economics. Another distinguished alums include late senator and US ambassador to India Daniel Patrick Moynihan, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and the singer Tracy Chapman.
