Dr. Avinash Chandran joined the Datalys Center in January 2020 as the Director of the NCAA Injury Surveillance Program. Prior to joining the Datalys Center, Dr. Chandran was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At UNC Chapel Hill, he concurrently worked within the Matthew-Gfeller Sport-Related TBI Research Center, the Center for Study of Retired Athletes, and the Injury Prevention Research Center. During his graduate studies, Dr. Chandran was also a Research Associate in the Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University.

Dr. Chandran is a quantitative Epidemiologist, and his research interests include injury epidemiology and surveillance, longitudinal study design and analytical methods, as well as Bayesian inference using observational data. His research program centers on the application of advanced quantitative methods in injury epidemiology, and in the study of athlete health and wellness across the lifespan. Dr. Chandran has been the recipient of various research grants to pursue these areas of research, and his work has been published in a variety of journals across the sports medicine, epidemiology and statistical literature.

Dr. Chandran holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Health from the University of Maryland, College Park. He completed his Master of Science in Epidemiology, as well as his PhD in Epidemiology at the George Washington University. In addition to serving as the Director of the NCAA ISP, Dr. Chandran also currently maintains adjunct faculty appointments at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and A.T. Still University. In addition, Dr. Chandran serves on the education team of the Football Medicine and Performance Association, as well as on the editorial boards of the Journal of Sport Rehabilitation and the Journal of Physical Activity and Health. Dr. Chandran also holds a C-license from the United States Soccer Federation, and has previously coached soccer at the high school and collegiate levels.