Professor Seyed E Hasnain, Ph.D. (JNU, Delhi), D.Sc. (h.c.) who was appointed as the first Director of the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, is the Vice-Chancellor of the prestigious University of Hyderabad. Professor Hasnain has made extraordinary contributions to molecular infection biology and epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), the TB bacterium. A fellow of all the three Science Academies in India (FNA, FASc, FNASc), he is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (first Indian to be elected to this prestigious body) and is one of the youngest to be elected to the Third world Academy of Sciences (TWAS), Trieste, Italy. He has over 200 publications to his credit, and over a dozen patents, too. He has mentored over a hundred Ph.D., MD and Post Doctoral students. Four of his students have received the INSA Young Scientist Medal.

Dr. Hasnain is a recipient of the Humboldt Research Prize awarded by the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation Germany; the Robert Koch Fellowship, from the Robert Koch Institute, Berlin (an award he shared with Professor Harald zur Hausen Nobelist 2008 and Professor Reinhard Kurth, Ex. Director, RKI); the G.D. Birla Award; the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize; the FICCI Award; a J C Bose National Fellowship Award; a Ranbaxy Research Award; a Goyal Award; Bhasin Award, and several others. He also received the Civilian Award, the Padma Sri, from the President of India.

Dr. Hasnain has been and is associated with several prestigious journals such as Emerging Infections Diseases (CDC, USA), Infection Genetics & Evolution (Elsevier) and Gut Pathogens, as Senior Editor/Receiving Editor/Editorial Board member. Having served the Membership of the Sectional Committees and Council of the National Academies of Sciences of India, he is a Member of the Sectional Committee (Microbiology & Immunolgy) to elect new members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. He is also a Member of the International Advisory Board, EuroPathoGenomics Network of Excellence, and is the Founding Patron of the ISOGEM (International Society for Genomic and Evolutionary Microbiology, ltaly).

Member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India and the Scientific Advisory Council to the Union Cabinet, Dr. Hasnain is also the Chairman of the Biotech Advisory Council, Government of Andhra Pradesh, and is a member of the Biotech Advisory Council of many State Governments. Professor Hasnain has been / is the Chairman/Member of Advisory/Governing Council of several institutions and policy making bodies for S&T and Higher education in the country. He is a Member of the Board of Directors of Indian Immunologicals Limited, ICICI Knowledge Park, University of Hyderabad Knowledge and Innovation Park, and several other Trusts and Societies.