Brief Biography:
I have been working as an Epidemiologist at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) for the past five years on several successful interdisciplinary research projects with a wide range of national and international partners and collaborators on topics relevant to non communicable disease risk factors and epidemiology focusing specifically on the interaction between diet, nutrition and cardiovascular risk, indoor air pollution and chronic health in India and other low and middle- income countries. I have more than eight years of experience in designing demographic and epidemiological studies, performing higher level statistical analysis and modelling of non-communicable chronic diseases and risk factors including obesity/measures; training and capacity building besides being actively and extensively engaged in chronic disease prevalence and risk factor research to improve public health in India.
I have a training in Population Studies (Demography) and Geography and obtained Ph.D in Population Studies from the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai. Prior to joining PHFI, I worked as an Assistant Professor at the International Institute for Health Management Research and as a Research Scientist at the National Institute for Medical Statistics, both based at New Delhi, India. I also acted as a consultant to different projects funded by the UNESCO, WHO, JHBSPH and the World Bank. I have several publications both in International and Indian peer-reviewed journals and acted as a peer reviewer for leading journals in the field of nutritional epidemiology, environmental health, demography and gender issues. I have been a Demographic Health Survey Fellow (2008-2009) and completed an Advanced Course on Epidemiological Analysis from the LSHTM in 2011. I have been a co-recipient of several research grants from noted agencies, including USAID, ESRC, UK and the Wellcome Trust.
Academic positions:
Jun 2009 – Present Epidemiologist, SANCD, PHFI, New Delhi NCR, India
Apr 2008– May 2009 Assistant Professor, IIHMR, New Delhi, India
Nov 2007– Mar 2008 Research Scientist, NIMS, ICMR, New Delhi, India
Feb 2007– Oct 2007 Program Associate, NIMS, ICMR, New Delhi, India
Jul 2006– Dec 2006 Consultant, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA
Nov 2001– May2005 Research Scholar, IIPS, Mumbai, India
Jun 2000-Oct 2001 Assistant Research Officer, IIPS, Mumbai, India
Research interests:
non communicable disease epidemiology and risk factor assessment; nutritional epidemiology including climate change resilient diets; environmental health; active travel; multiple morbidity; tobacco control; cardiovascular risk assessment and measurement; social inequalities and determinants of health; social health policies and ageing; health and wellbeing of elderly in LMICs; women and child health; gender issues
Any other information:
HONOURS/AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS
2014 BMJ India Award Finalist in ‘Research Paper of the Year’ Category
2012 Geneva Health Forum Travel Grant
2011 World Congress of Epidemiology Bursary
2001, 2010 Population Association of America Travel Award
2009 World Bank Bursary Award
2008-2009 USAID Demographic Health Survey Fellowship
2005 IUSSP Travel Grant
2003 Parkes Foundation Small Grant Award
2002-2004 Government of India; PhD Training Fellowship
2000 International Institute for Population Sciences; Silver Medal Award
1999-2000 Government of India; MPS Training Fellowship
1996-98 Government of India; MSc Training Fellowship
What I think of the idea behind WebmedCentral:
Its a great platform to share ideas and references in oublic health and medicine.