Assistant Professor
Educational Qualification: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Department of Human Development & Family Studies, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (MSUB), Vadodara, Gujarat, Master of Arts (MA) in Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychology, MSUB, Vadodara, Gujarat – 1st Class
Dr. Apurva kumar Pandya is a trained psychologist, social and behavioural scientist. He holds post-graduate degree in Clinical Psychology and a doctorate in Human Development and Family Studies from The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Gujarat.
Prior joining IIPHG, he was serving as an Associate Professor and Director at the Parul Institute Public Health, Parul University, Vadodara. With more than 17 years of experience in the social sector and health research, his interests broadly attempt to understand psychological and social determinants of health, (digital) health behaviour change, health promotion, and the impact of technology on health outcomes of the marginalized population (especially LGBTQ, children on the street and in the juvenile justice settings and women). Moreover, he explores indigenous counselling approaches for promoting positive health and research for strengthening health system and inform policy.
He has been the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards. He received the University Grants Commission Research Fellowship (Government of India) from the year 2007-12 for his doctoral research. In 2008, he was conferred with the Many Faces of Counselling Psychology Award by the International Counselling Psychology Conference Organizing Committee in Chicago. In 2010-11, he received Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral and Professional Research Fellowship and visited the Department of Socio-Medical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. In 2012, he received Early Career Scholar award and briefly visited the Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Canada. Other awards include travel awards and scholarships to his credit.
He is actively engaged in research and public health consultation. He is a member of
- Global Burden of Disease Collaborative Network (GBDCN)
- Steering Member, International Collaboration for Participatory Health Research (ICPHR)
- Coordinator, Social Science Approaches for Research and Engagement in Health Policy and Systems (SHAPES), a Thematic Working Group under the aggies of Health System Global
He serves as an Academic Editor, PloS One (Impact Factor: 3.7); Associate Editor, Frontiers in Public Health (Impact Factor: 6) and Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (Impact Factor: 3.5). He is an expert reviewer for National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), UK and numerous indexed and impacts factor journals like Journal of Public Health, Oxford University Press; International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, Cambridge University Press; British Medical Journal, Frontiers in Public Health, to name few. Recently, he has co-authored books: Writing Effective Grant Proposals” by HSRA publications; Research Methodology, Business Communication and Human Values & Workplace Ethics by Scientific International Publishing House. He has more than 85 scientific publications to his credit with 800+ citations and h-index of 15.