Dr. H.S. Dhillon Memorial Scholarship Fund
Celebrating a life of service and leadership in higher education
Dr. Dhillon received a bachelor’s degree with honors in biochemistry from Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana, Punjab, India 1986, and a Master’s degree in biotechnology from the University of Baroda in Gujarat state, India in 1988. He then came to the USA and in 1997 he received a PhD in Molecular Biology from Rutgers University in New Jersey. He went on to do post-doctoral work in neuroscience at the University of Toronto in Canada. He then returned to the US to South Carolina where he served as a faculty member teaching at the Medical University of South Carolina and South Carolina State University, and carried out research in collaboration with colleagues at the University of South Carolina. In 2006 he came to Delaware to be a faculty member in the biology department at Delaware State University. Dr. Dhillon started as an assistant professor, but quickly rose through the ranks, and was promoted to full professor in 2016.
Harb was an outstanding researcher who made significant contributions to our understanding of how genes control learning and behavior. His research used the simple model systems Drosophila (fruit fly) and C elegans (a nematode worm) to understand how the genes that modulate neurotransmitter release influence development and adult behavior. We lost Harb when he was at the top of his game professionally. Since starting at DSU, Harb was awarded over $2.3 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation to support his research and for neuroscience education. He recently published scientific papers in the Journal of Neuroscience Research, and in the journal Synapse, where his work was featured on the cover. In 2020 Harb was named Delaware’s Neuroscientist of the Year by the Delaware Center for Neuroscience Research. One of the most significant parts of Harb’s legacy is the graduate students that he has trained. Harb successfully graduated six students from DSU’s neuroscience MS program and two students from DSU’s Neuroscience PhD program. At the time of his death he was supervising two MS students and three PhD students.
Harb met his wife, Priya Kaur Dhillon, in California. At the time she was a professional singer performing in the US and Canada. Harb saw Priya’s picture in the newspaper and got in touch with her. They fell in love and were married in July 2002. Harb and Priya have two sons named Zaferjit and Ervan. Apart from being a scientist, Dr. Dhillon was an outstanding table tennis player! He played in numerous USATT tournaments and taught this skill to his kids too.
Harb’s wife Priya and colleague Dr. Melissa Harrington have established the Dr. H.S. Dhillon Honors Memorial Scholarship Fund to honor Harb’s life and legacy. This fund will support Harb’s lifelong passion of biology by providing scholarships to students entering this field of study. Family, friends, colleagues and partners are encouraged to contribute to this fund to honor and commemorate Harb’s life and the impact he made on countless lives.