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A Kentucky State University professor was recently selected as a Fulbright Specialist.

Dr. Narayanan Rajendran, in his 16th year at Kentucky State, will serve as a Fulbright Specialist for the next three years by contributing to the global understanding of the academic language.

According to its website, Fulbright Specialists are experienced professionals and scholars who conduct projects abroad at host institutions.

Rajendran’s areas of expertise are molecular microbiology and genomics.

“My research deals primarily with bacterial genomics in the molecular microbiology field,” Rajendran said.

Rajendran said he strongly believes student success and learning outcomes can be significantly improved with competent professors who have a Ph.D. and research knowledge in the subject matter.

Having already achieved national and international recognition, Rajendran said he felt it was time to give back his expertise to the global community as part of the Fulbright Specialist program.

“My interest in serving as a Fulbright Specialist stems from my latest NIH summer research, which focused on genomics,” Rajendran said. “The scope of the current project includes my commitment to generate and disseminate knowledge to academic and research groups and my desire to share this research expertise and program development experience to international institutions.”

Rajendran said he strongly believes in the importance of a global mindset.

“When I got the Indo-US teaching professorship award, I collaborated with Gujarat University in India and gave an invited seminar at the University Senate Hall,” Rajendran said. “I taught a short-term course on the latest genomic advancement on an international scale.”

Rajendran earned a Ph.D. in biological sciences from Bharathidasan University and took courses in molecular biology and cell biology in pursuit of a second Ph.D. from the University of California-Irvine.