Mohammad Hamid Ansari is the former Vice-President of India from 2007 to 2017.  As a career diplomat he served as India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Ambassador to Australia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. He was conferred Padma Shree in 1984. He was Visiting Professor in Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Vice- Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University and the Chairman, National Commission for Minorities. His works include Iran Today: Twenty Five Years after the Islamic Revolution, (ed) (New Delhi, 2005), Traveling Through Conflict: Essays on the Politics of West Asia, (New Delhi, 2008), Teasing Questions: Exploring Disconnects in Contemporary India, (New Delhi 2013) and Citizen and Society: Selected Writings, (New Delhi 2016)