Dr. PS Prabhakaran has been appointed as the vice chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS). He will replace Dr. R Chandrashekar whose tenure ends on May 31.

Dr. Prabhakaran is currently the director of the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology (KMIO), the only State Government cancer care centre. He has been the professor and surgical oncologist at the KMIO for the last 15 years. He takes charge as vice chancellor on June 1, 2005 and will hold the office for a three-year period, according to an announcement from the State Governor, TN Chaturvedi's office.

Dr. Prabhakaran is credited to having performed a major curative surgery on an AIDS infected patient for the first time in the country. He was honoured with awards including the Dr. BC Roy's Doctors Day Award in 2000.

During his reign at KMIO, he set up the Cancer Drug Foundation in the hospital which is one of its kind in the country. This Foundation buys drugs directly from manufacturers and dispenses it to patients about 45 per cent cheaper than what is available in the market. Kidwai also opened peripheral cancer centres, which are a 50- bedded facility in Gulbarga and Mandya districts of Karnataka to help patients to access immediate attention as commuting to Bangalore would be inconvenient.