苏米娅·斯瓦米纳坦1959—

苏米娅生于印度金奈，其父M·S·斯瓦米纳坦被称为“印度绿色革命之父”，其母是教育家米娜·斯瓦米纳坦。她的父母共有三个女儿。

Soumya Swaminathan (born 2 May 1959) is an Indian paediatrician and clinical scientist known for her research on tuberculosis and HIV. Soumya served as Secretary to the Government of India for Health Research and Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (2015–2017), where she prioritized evidence-based health policy, research capacity building in medical schools, and strengthening south-south partnerships in health sciences. From October 2017 to March 2019, she was the deputy director general of programmes (DDP) at the World Health Organization. Subsequently till 2022, she served as the chief scientist at the World Health Organization under the leadership of Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Early life and education

Soumya Swaminathan was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Soumya is the daughter of "Father of Green Revolution of India", M. S. Swaminathan and Indian educationalist Mina Swaminathan. Soumya has two siblings, Madhura Swaminathan, a professor of economics at the Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore, and Nitya Rao, a professor of gender and development at the University of East Anglia.

Soumya received an M.B.B.S. from the Armed Forces Medical College in Pune. She has an M.D. in pediatrics from All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. She is a Diplomate of National Board from National Board of Examinations.

Career

Early career

From 1989 to 1990, Soumya was a research fellow (registrar) in the Department of Pediatric Respiratory Diseases at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom.

She then worked as a senior research officer (Supernumerary Research Cadre), Cardiopulmonary Medicine Unit, as well as an adjunct associate clinical professor at the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Massachusetts.

In 1992, Soumya joined the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis a/k/a Tuberculosis Research Centre, where she was Coordinator, Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Selected research

Soumya's areas of interest are paediatric and adult tuberculosis (TB), epidemiology and pathogenesis, and the role of nutrition in HIV-associated TB.

While at the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis in Chennai, Soumya started a multi-disciplinary group of clinical, laboratory and behavioural scientists studying various aspects of TB and TB/HIV. Soumya along with her colleagues were among the first to scale up the use of molecular diagnostics for TB surveillance and care, to undertake large field trials of community-randomised strategies to deliver TB treatment to underserved populations.

Other activities

Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), member of the board of directors (since 2023)

Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, Member of the Board

Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), non-voting member of the board (until 2022), voting member of the board (since 2023)

GISAID, Member of the SAC Nomination Committee (since 2023)

Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP), non-voting member of the board of directors

• Global Coalition Against TB, member of the expert group
• WomenLift Health, member of the global advisory board
• Advisor, Resource Group for Education and Advocacy for Community Health (REACH)

Awards

2016: AstraZeneca Research Endowment Award, presented by the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, S.A.S. Nagar

2026: She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). She is the second Indian woman to be inducted into the academy and India's first father-daughter duo to receive the honor.

Personal life

Soumya is married to Ajit Yadav, an orthopedic surgeon. The couple has a daughter, Shreya Yadav.

Selected works and publications

Murray, Christopher J L; Barber, Ryan M; Foreman, Kyle J; et al. (November 2015). "Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 306 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (HALE) for 188 countries, 1990–2013: quantifying the epidemiological transition". The Lancet. 386 (10009): 2145–2191. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(15)61340-X. PMC 4673910. PMID 26321261. Wikidata

Forouzanfar, Mohammad H; Alexander, Lily; Anderson, H Ross; et al. (December 2015).