Having studied in India and UK, Dr. Sunil Karad has experienced the difference in the education systems in India and in Britain. After his Bachelors in Polymer Engineering in India, he completed his Masters in Engineering Sciences from the University of Sheffield, UK with distinction. His academic excellence in the Masters degree brought him the honour of receiving the first of its kind University Endowed Scholarship from the University of Sheffield to pursue his PhD along with a Research Fellowship from British Aerospace Plc, UK. Completing his PhD at an age of 26 years, in a record time of 21 months, he was awarded the Research Excellence Award from the University.

His academic merits brought him loads of prestigious work offers in the UK those including the British Aerospace but he preferred to return to his own country and contribute to the society. He began his career as a Professor in the Polymer Engineering Dept of Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Pune, India.

This was the time when most of the engineering colleges were confined to the city limits and so, he proposed to the management to establish an Engineering college in Alandi, a holy town in Pune District. Thus, the Maharashtra Academy of Engineering was established in Alandi in 1999.

Realizing the need of education and professional training in various fields other than the conventional courses, he took the lead in establishing the Autonomous courses department, the MIT College of Insurance, the MIT School of Distance Education and others for professional sectors such as Insurance, Piping Design and Engineering, Energy Management, Fire Safety Engineering and many more. Heading all these institutes in varied fields, have given him a rich experience in terms of being an administrator.

He received the visiting Post Doctoral research Fellowship of the University of Sheffield in 2001 and he served the Engineering Materials Dept of the University as a Post Doctoral Research Associate in 2003.

He firmly believes that one should not ask what the country has done for me but rather, what I can do for my country. So, along with his other commitments, he established the Alandi Dehu Parisar Vikas Samiti – a NGO which works for the development of the famous pilgrimage centres Alandi and Dehu.

In the year 2005, he facilitated the 5 year partnership between Doordarshan India and MIT to organize the National Level Robotic event ROBOCON in MIT, Pune. The partnership went on to host the Asia Pacific Contest in India in 2008 which was a great honour to the country.

Summing up, Dr. Sunil Karad has been working as an Academician, Administrator, Social Worker – for NGO as well as for the UNESCO chair and believes that promoting intercultural understanding is the key to peace in the world.