Soumiya Swaminathan, who heads the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has been appointed as Deputy General of the World Health Organisation (WHO). WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced her appointment on Tuesday morning. He was elected this year to head the Geneva-based Organisation. Swaminathan is a leading medical researcher and health policy expert. Apart from being the director-general of the ICMR, she is concurrently the secretary of the Department of Health Research in India’s Health Ministry. She has 30 years of experience in clinical care and research.

The WHO announcement described her as “a globally recognized researcher on tuberculosis and HIV, she brings with her 30 years of experience in clinical care and research and has worked throughout her career to translate research into impactful programmes”.

Soumiya Swaminathan is an Indian paediatrician and Clinical Scientist who is known for her contribution in Tuberculosis research. She is an M.B.B.S from Armed Forces Medical College (India) and M.D. from All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences, along with a Diplomate of National Board from National Board of Examinations. She later held Post Doctoral Medical Fellowship in Pediatric Pulmonology at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.

India Tv – Soumiya Swaminathan imagesSoumiya Swaminathan images

Her father, M.S. Swaminathan who is an agricultural scientist is hailed as the father of India’s Green Revolution. She has been the director of the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis in Chennai. She was also the coordinator of a special programme for research and training in tropical diseases collectively funded by several international organisations in Geneva.

Her sister Madhura Swaminathan is a professor of economics at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata and Nithya Swaminathan is a Senior Lecturer in Gender Analysis and Developement at the University of East Anglia.

Soumiya Swaminathan joined the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis in Chennai in 1992. She initiated a multi-disciplinary group of clinical laboratory and behavioural scientists analysing various facets of TB and TB/HIV. She along with her colleagues, were the first to scale up the use of molecular diagnostics for TB surveillance and care, to embark on large field trials of community-randomised strategies to bring TB treatment to underprivileged populations. Lately, she is the part of TB Zero City Project which aspires to create Islands of Elimination working with local government, institutions and grassroots associations.