Dr. S. B. Mujumdar is a distinguished academician
and educationist. He is the Founder Director of
SYMBIOSIS - a multi-lingual, multi-national,
multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary educational complex of international repute. He is also the Chancellor of Symbiosis Deemed University. Due to his long illustrious career, the President of India awarded the prestigious "Padmashree" to Dr. S.B. Mujumdar in 2005. Dr. Mujumdar is also the Chairman of the education wing of the prestigious Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industries, (FICCI).

Born on 31st July 1935 in a small town Gadhinglaj in Kolhapur District (Maharashtra), Dr. Mujumdar completed his college education at Kolhapur and Pune. He obtained a first class first in M.Sc. (Botany) and a Doctorate in Microbiology. He was the Head of the Department of Botany, Fergusson College, Pune for 20 years. He has written many standard books and published several papers in national and international books. He was also a member of the Executive Council of the Pune University for 9 years.

Through his experiences at Fergusson College, he realized the difficulties faced by foreign students, particularly those from Afro Asian countries, studying in Pune. Inspired by the ideals of Viswa Bharati of Gurudeo Tagore and 'Antar Bharati' of Sane Guruji, and with a desire to help foreign students and offer them a 'Home away from Home', in 1971 he established an organization called Symbiosis, which means 'living together of two different organisms for mutual benefit'. The motto of Symbiosis is "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" - The world is one family.

Symbiosis today comprises of 33 institutes imparting training in diverse disciplines. It has over 45,000 students who hail from all states of India and from 60 different countries. In 2002, the Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India conferred on Symbiosis, the status of a Deemed University . Dr. Mujumdar now intends to strive towards converting Symbiosis University into an International University and also set up a Vishwa Gram, a Global Village on its university campus - where foreign and Indian students can live together in hostels, learn together in classrooms, play together on sports fields and eat together in cafeterias.