Last month,the San Diego State University’s Honors Program put together an afternoon dedicated to the latest professor to be honored with the opportunity to give his/her “Last Lecture.” The most recent impressive professor at our beautiful university to be granted this award is Dr. Dipak Gupta, a Professor in the Department of Political Science and the man behind the creation of the ISCOR, or International Security and Conflict Resolution, major. Traditionally every week one of our lovely writers composes a piece based on an interview they had with our latest campus “celebrity,” but this week will be a little different. Despite not having an interview with this incredibly busy man, a little highlighting of his accomplishments and recent award really is deserved and if there ever is an academic celebrity at SDSU right now, it’s this man.
Dr. Dipak Gupta was born and raised in India, completing his Master’s degree in Economics before travelling to the United States to obtain his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburg. He worked his way up through the ranks, taking classes to improve his education as he went. He was finally appointed a position at San Diego State University in the Department of Political Science and fell in love with the institution. He has been working at our magnificent college for a total of 34 years, and during that time developed an entirely new major entitled International Security and Conflict Resolution, which now has over 300 majors and counting.
Along with making outstanding contributions to SDSU, he has also written over nine books, covering terrorism and homeland security to public policy. He is a visiting scholar at a variety of impressive institutions, such as Oxford University, University in Shanghai, and Leiden University in the Netherlands. He has published over 100 articles and been invited into the homes and seminars of a wide selection of foreign leaders in his many years of active research. Dr. Gupta has also secured ample funds for the University through new grants going towards expanding the ISCOR profession.
Finally, and some might say his most impressive achievement, he has two children with his wife, and continues to love working at San Diego State University.Although a little unconventional, not every campus “celebrity” is necessarily a tall, tan, and handsome basketball player. Sometimes academics take a bit of a shine, and produce people who have worked hard to create the growing University we all know and love. And if they happen to have a thousand awards and accomplishments under their belt, more power to ya!