Awardee Profiles

Dr. Gagandeep Kang FNA, FASc, FRS is an eminent clinician scientist and is currently a Professor at The Wellcome Trust Research Laboratory, Division of Gastrointestinal Sciences at the Christian Medical College, Vellore. She is the first Indian woman scientist to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 359 years of history of this prestigious scientific academy. She is also the executive director of the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad, an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India.

Being very passionate from a very young age about science, today she is a leading researcher with a major research focus on viral infections in children, and the testing of rotaviral vaccines. She also works on other enteric infections and their consequences when children are infected in early life, sanitation and water safety.

Dr. Gagandeep Kang completed her Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) in 1987 and her Doctor of Medicine (MD) in Microbiology in 1991 from Christian Medical College, Vellore and obtained her PhD in 1998. She is a key contributor to rotavirus epidemiology and vaccinology in India. Her work has led to her being described as India's "vaccine godmother".

She has published over 300 scientific papers and is on editorial boards for several journals. She is on many review committees for national and international research funding agencies.

She was the ninth woman to be awarded the prestigious Infosys Prize in Life Sciences. She is the first Indian and the first woman to edit Manson's Textbook of Tropical Medicine.