BIRKBECK-INDIA Connect 2025: Global Health, Wellbeing, Careers & Community With Professor Sanjib Bhakta
When:
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Venue:
Hybrid
You are warmly invited to Birkbeck-India Connect 2025, a special celebratory gathering with Professor Sanjib Bhakta.
This event holds special significance: Professor Bhakta studied at several leading Indian universities and institutes, including Santiniketan (Visva-Bharati University, founded by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore), and now returns to reconnect with the community that helped shape the foundations of his more than two decades of academic journey in the United Kingdom, from a DPhil student to a Professor.
This Birkbeck–India Connect event will be hosted in Tagore’s own ancestral residence, which has remained with the family for over five generations. Set against the vibrant and culturally rich backdrop of the winter festival Poush Mela, the gathering offers a rare opportunity for alumni, current students, and prospective applicants to come together in a spirit of inspiration, meaningful dialogue, and genuine collaboration.
Why This Gathering Matters? Celebrate Culture, Community & Heritage: Poush Mela is more than a festival; it is a living celebration of Bengal’s folk traditions, arts, music (especially folk/baul music), crafts, rural–urban connections, and communal harmony.
Reconnect & Expand Local & Global Networks: Alumni meet-ups help bridge past and present, enabling former and current students, and prospective applicants, to interact, exchange ideas, build friendships, and strengthen ties across generations and geographies.
Address Health, Well-being & Global Challenges: With Professor Bhakta’s expertise in tackling antimicrobial resistance and global infectious-disease challenges, we aim to foster conversations about how global research can translate to local impact, and how local communities can contribute to global solutions.
Support Career Growth & Employability: The gathering offers a platform for mentoring, guidance on academic and career pathways (both in India and abroad), and information about interdisciplinary research and opportunities, opening doors for students and prospective applicants.
Celebrate Achievements & Inspire Future Endeavours: We come together to celebrate successes (academic, personal, professional), revive old memories, and plant seeds for future collaborations, research, and community engagement.
About Professor Sanjib Bhakta:
Professor Bhakta is a distinguished molecular microbiologist and biochemist whose research centres on developing novel therapeutics and repurposing existing drugs to combat antimicrobial resistance, especially in tuberculosis (TB). A graduate of The Queen’s College, University of Oxford (DPhil in Pharmacology), he was awarded the prestigious Sir William Paton Prize. With over 120 peer-reviewed publications, his work has achieved global recognition; among them, a Nature Scientific Reports article (top 100 most-read in 2018) was featured by BBC Health News for identifying resistance-reversal properties in natural products. As Specialty Chief Editor of Frontiers in Antibiotics, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, the Royal Society of Biology, and the Linnean Society of London, he combines rigorous research with active teaching and mentorship. A dedicated STEM-ambassador and public-engagement advocate, he has guided many MRes, MPhil, PhD and postdoctoral researchers across the UK.
What to Expect at Birkbeck-India Connect 2025:
Meaningful Conversations: Engage in open discussions on global health, antimicrobial resistance, environmental challenges, and how local understanding can inform global research and vice versa.
Networking & Mentorship: Chance for alumni, current students, and aspiring applicants to build connections, seek advice, explore academic and career opportunities, and lay groundwork for collaborations.
Cultural Immersion & Celebration: Experience the rich mosaic of music, folk art, craft stalls, traditional food, and spirited community life at Poush Mela: a celebration of heritage that brings people from all walks of life together.
Inspiration & Shared Vision: Celebrate collective and individual journeys, successes, and aspirations, rekindling the spirit of belonging and shared purpose in the Birkbeck student-staff community.
We warmly invite you to be part of this special occasion, a convergence of heritage, science, culture, community, and future vision. Let’s come together in Santiniketan, under the festive spirit of Poush Mela, to reconnect, reflect, inspire, and forge new paths forward.
Please note: Event registrations close on Thursday 18 December 2025.
Contact name: Sudipto Das
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