Advisory Committee
Professor Dileep V. Mavalankar (Chairperson)
Distinguished Professor of Public Health & Former Director,
Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar
Professor Ollie Jay
Professor of Heat and Health,
Director, Heat and Health Research Incubator,
Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney
Dr. Josh Karliner
Director of Global Partnerships,
Health Care Without Harm
Dr. T. Rajgopal
Occupational Health Expert,
Independent Director, HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company Limited,
Former VP Global Medical & Occupational Health Unilever,
Former Independent Director Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd.
Dr. Rajnarayan Tiwari
Director,
ICMR – National Institute for Research in Environmental Health (NIREH), Bhopal
Dr. Angela Chang
Associate Professor,
Danish Institute for Advanced Study (DIAS),
Danish Centre for Health Economics (DaCHE),
University of Southern Denmark
Professor Sagnik Dey
Chair at Centre for Atmospheric Sciences and Coordinator of Centre of Excellence for Research on Clean Air (CERCA),
School of Public Policy,
Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi
Dr. Malini R. Capoor
Professor,
Department of Microbiology,
Vardhman Mahavir Medical College & Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi
Professor Amita Athavale
Professor & Head,
Department of Pulmonary Medicine and E.P.R.C.,
KEM Hospital and Seth GS Medical College, Mumbai
Professor Sanjay Zodpey
President,
Public Health Foundation of India
Dr. Raj Shankar Ghosh (Convenor)
Senior Advisor,
PHFI Centre for Environmental Health
Professor Dileep V. Mavalankar
Professor Dileep Mavlankar is the Honorary distinguished professor of Public Health and former director of the Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar. Prof. Mavalankar received an MBBS and MD in Preventive and Social Medicine from Gujarat University in Ahmedabad, and MPH (1983) and Dr. P.H (1990) from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, USA. His work experience includes faculty and research positions in NHL Municipal Medical College, Ahmedabad, National Institute of Health in Bethesda, USA, Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India and Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, NY, USA. He has worked as consultant/advisor to many agencies including WHO, World Bank, UNDP, UNICEF, Agakhan Foundation, AMDD program of Columbia university USA. He has been on various high-level committees/boards of government of India and Government of Gujarat, Niti Ayog, NHSRC, NTAGI, etc. Prof. Mavalankar has authored more than 200 publications. He has been advisor to key academic and government organizations and NGOs. Prof. Mavalankar was appointed by the Prime Minister to the high-level Missions Steering Group of the National Rural Health Mission constituted by the Government of India in 2005. He is the member secretary of the Gujarat government’s Covid taskforce appointed by CM of Gujarat.
He has long experience of working in India and internationally on family planning, maternal and child health, Reproductive health and Rights, public health policy and management. He is a very well recognized public health expert in India. He helped develop the Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan in 2013 which has now been scaled up in many cities of India. He is currently a Short-Term Consultant to the World Bank.
Professor Dileep Mavalankar was involved in guiding analysis of heat related mortality in Ahmedabad during heat wave of 2010. He also guided development of Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan which was a pioneering plan in South Asia. He was involved in various studies related to heat and health in Ahmedabad, Nagpur and other places. He made several presentations to NDMA, and various state and national bodies regarding heat and health and heat action plan development. He is currently working as a Short-Term Consultant to the World bank on climate change and heat health. He is one of the key experts in the area of heat action plans in India.
Professor Ollie Jay
Ollie Jay is Professor of Heat and Health and Director of the Heat and Health Research Centre in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at The University of Sydney. He is a NHMRC Investigator Grant recipient for his research program entitled “Heat and Health: Building resilience to a warming planet across the human lifespan“.
Ollie has led several large-scale projects that have directly influenced international public health heatwave policies in the United States, Europe, and Australia. He recently partnered with Google to deliver his team’s research on evidence-based personal cooling strategies through automated heat warning alerts in Google Chrome worldwide. He has also led extreme heat policy development for Sports Medicine Australia, Tennis Australia (Australian Open), and Cricket Australia, and is the Lead Heat Consultant for the Australian Olympic Team for the forthcoming Paris 2024 games. Ollie is also a co-Founder of EMU Systems – a spin-out venture delivering heat stress monitoring and management systems for sport and industry. He was recently profiled by The Lancet in their 2021 Heat & Health Series, and his research program has been featured in Science and Nature highlighting its lead global contribution to protecting society’s most vulnerable to the heat.
He has received >$14M in research funding from organisations such as the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Wellcome Trust (UK), the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, and Multiple Sclerosis Research Australia. He has also been a previous recipient of the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence: Outstanding Research and Teaching (2017) and Mentoring and Leadership (2022), and SUPRA Research Supervisor of the Year (2018 & 2019).
Dr. Josh Karliner
Dr. Josh Karliner is the Director of Global Partnerships for Health Care Without Harm (HCWH). He is an advocate, strategist and author who works to build and support cutting-edge, multisectoral initiatives for environment, health and justice. Over the past two decades he’s played a leadership role at HCWH to build a climate resilient, low carbon and more equitable health care sector that advocates for a healthy climate and a just transition. In that context he has established and co-developed a series of initiatives including the organization’s Global Green and Healthy Hospitals Network, with members now in 80 countries. Closely collaborating with the World Health Organization, Josh spearheaded HCWH’s successful worldwide campaign to eliminate mercury in healthcare and led its more recent work with WHO and the UK COP Presidency to secure commitments for sustainable, low-carbon, climate resilient health care from frome what are now more than 84 governments that are part of the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health. He is author of two books along with a wide variety of publications on global environmental and health policy, including two groundbreaking reports: one that defined health care’s worldwide climate footprint and the second that set forth a Global Road Map to decarbonize the sector with equity and resilience.
Dr. T. Rajgopal
Dr. Rajgopal Thirumalai is a Post Graduate in Preventive Medicine (MD), Public Health (DPH), Occupational Health (DIH) and Health & Hospital Administration (DNB). He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Ireland), a Fellow of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine (FFOM from London and Ireland) and a Fellow of the Indian Public Health Association. He is an alumnus of the School of Public Health, University of Berkeley, California and has been trained at Harvard through executive health care programs.
He is currently an Adjunct Faculty with the Public Health Foundation of India and is an Independent Director with HDFC Ergo Pvt. Ltd and also Zywie Ventures Ltd (a subsidiary of Hindustan Unilever Limited). He is a Governing Board Member of the National Safety Council, India.
He is trained in Digital Transformation of Health Care from the Imperial College. London and is currently the head of the Advisory Board of Fitterfly – a digital therapeutics start up. He retired from Unilever as their global VP for medical and occupational health and was responsible for providing global strategy in health for around 150,000 employees worldwide. He was a Leadership Board member (as a part of Unilever), of the World Economic Forum’s Workplace Wellness Alliance (2010-2013).
He was also on the Board of Apollo Hospitals Ltd. as an Independent Director. (2017-2021). He has held advisory roles with Govt of MP following Bhopal Gas Disaster, and the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board. Dr. Rajgopal has around 50 research publications, authored three chapters and three books. He was on the editorial board of the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (2011-2020) as also the Editor of the Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (1994-2002). Dr. Rajgopal is the recipient of the Dr B C Roy Award in 2016, given away by the President of India.
Dr. Rajnarayan Tiwari
Dr. Rajnarayan R Tiwari, is currently the Director of ICMR-National Institute for Research in Environmental Health (NIREH), Bhopal. He did his MD in Preventive and Social Medicine from Government Medical College, Nagpur and PhD in Life Sciences from Gujarat University. In addition, he is also holding Master’s degree in Public Administration, Economics and Sociology. He started his career as Lecturer in Indira Gandhi Medical College, Nagpur before shifting to National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad in 2000 as scientist where he worked till 2015. In 2015 he was appointed Director of National Institute of Miners’ Health Nagpur.
He has worked extensively on occupational health with focus on occupational dust related lung disorders such as silicosis, asbestosis and coal workers pneumoconiosis; occupational hazards of working children and development of occupational health manpower. Currently, he is involved in air pollution and climate change related research and developing competency based environmental health capacity building. He has 284 research publications in the field of occupational, environmental and public health in national and international journals. He is also the Editor of two books titled “Environmental and Occupational Exposures: Reproductive Impairment” and “Recent trends in Environmental Health” and reviewer to many national and international peer-reviewed journals. He has also guided 42 AFIH students and 26 MPH EOH students for their dissertation/thesis work. His current H-index is 30 with 4004 citations.
He is a visiting faculty of Occupational and Environmental Health to Manipal University, PHFI, ICMR-NIOH and ISTAR. He has worked on 35 projects as principal and co-investigator related to occupational and environmental health sponsored by national and international agencies. His work is recognized through WHO Fellowship, Fellowship award of IAPSM and Fellowship award of IPHA. He is the only Fellow of National Academy of Medical Sciences in the country in the field of Occupational and Environmental Health. He is also a Life Member of National Academy of Sciences (India), National Environmental Science Academy and Epidemiological Foundation of India. In 2014 he was awarded with ICMR National award for research work in the field of Community Medicine. In recognition to his contribution in developing occupational health manpower in India and Gujarat, he was awarded with honorary AFIH by Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health, Government of Gujarat in 2013.
Dr. Angela Chang
Angela Y. Chang is an Associate Professor at the Danish Institute for Advanced Study and Danish Centre for Health Economics at the University of Southern Denmark. Her research lies in the areas of health economics, and health metrics. Her recent work includes measuring experienced burden of disease, improving measures of gender inequality in health, studying youth climate migration in Uganda, and analyzing global epidemiological and demographic trends as part of the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health. Angela received her master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, doctoral degree from Harvard University, and postdoctoral training at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.
Professor Sagnik Dey
Prof. Sagnik Dey is the Institute Chair Professor at the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, IIT Delhi. He received his M. Sc. in Applied Geoscience from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and M. Tech. and PhD from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India. He worked as Postdoctoral Scientist at Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA for three years before joining IIT Delhi. His research interests are to understand ‘air quality, climate change and health nexus’ and ‘remote sensing of the Earth’s climate system’. He has published more than 130 peer-reviewed research articles (h-index – 45 as per google scholar). He received INSA Young Scientist Medal in 2008, NASI-SCOPUS Young Scientist Award in 2012, Dr. Sudhansu Kumar Banerji MoES outstanding young faculty fellowship for the period 2011-2013, and Teaching Excellence Award from IIT Delhi in 2016. He is an international collaborator of NASA’s MAIA satellite mission and served as an expert member of WHO Global Platform on Air Quality and Health.
He is a collaborator of the Global Burden of Disease Study. Prof. Dey has been awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship for 2017-18. Prof. Dey is the coordinator of Centre of Excellence for Research on Clean Air (CERCA), IIT Delhi. He is an Associate Faculty of School of Public Policy and Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre (TRIPC), IIT Delhi. He is a member of WHO Southeast Asia non-communicable diseases Regional Technical Advisory group and co-convener of CAPHER-India network. He is serving as Deputy Editor of the Journal of Health and Pollution (NIH journal), Associate Editor of Atmospheric Environment (Elsevier journal) and of Heliyon (Cell press), and Editorial board member of GeoHealth (AGU journal), Scientific Reports (Nature journal) and Earth System Dynamics (EGU journal). He is serving as a member of the scientific advisory committee of the ICMR National Institute for Research in Environmental Health, Bhopal and the National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad and of the Academic Council of TERI School of Advanced Studies.
Dr. Malini R. Capoor
Dr. Malini Capoor is the Professor, Microbiology, VMMC & Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, India. Her research interests are in the field of Systemic fungal infections, endemic mycoses and Biomedical Waste. Dr. Capoor is the member of the MoHFW Expert Committee: (Mucormycosis, Aspergillosis & BMW), Joint Secretary of Indian Society of Medical Mycologists, Chairperson of DST: Water, Sanitation, Waste Project review committee, Chairperson DBT: projects on Environmental Biotechnology and Bioenergy: BIOCARE, Expert Group Member: WHO document: Global analysis of health care waste in context COVID 2022. She is also on the advisory board of The Journal of Global Infectious Disease. Dr. Capoor has also received the WHO-SEAR fellowship on healthcare waste management, 2016.
Dr. Capoor has over 104 publications and she has delivered over 130 lectures at national and international forums. She has been the organizing Secretary of 6 Workshops on Fungal infections, 2 National Conference on Healthcare Waste, 12 National Workshops on Biomedical Waste. She is a recipient of several awards for her presentations at national and international forums and conferences.
Dr. Capoor has guided several Mycology and Microbiology thesis as a PI/CoPI under ICMR, DBT, SIHAM, FISF projects.
Professor Sanjay Zodpey
Professor Sanjay Zodpey is the President, Public Health Foundation of India. He has served as Vice President – Academics, Public Health Foundation of India and led the Indian Institute of Public Health, Delhi as its Founding Director. He has held joint appointment as Honorary / Adjunct Professor in five international universities: Georgia Southern University, Georgia; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA; The University of Sydney, Australia; Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia; and Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Lalitpur, Nepal. He has served as Director of Indian Institutes of Public Health at Gandhinagar and Bhubaneswar. He has also served as Professor at Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Faculty in Clinical Epidemiology Unit and Vice Dean at Government Medical College, Nagpur, India.
He is a trained public health professional with multidisciplinary qualifications. He has acquired MD (Community Medicine), PhD and post-graduate qualifications in Sociology, Public Administration, and Economics. He was conferred ‘Doctor of Science (DSc) (Honoris Causa)’ by DMIMS Deemed to be University, Wardha for long-standing contribution to medical science and public health. He has been recently conferred ‘Doctor of Medicine (honoris causa) by The University of Sydney, Australia in recognition of his eminent contributions to public health in India, the region, and the world.
He was the National President of Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine for two consecutive terms. With over 435 publications, he features in top 2 percent scientists across the world for his research contribution in Tropical Medicine for three consecutive years as part of worldwide ranking of scientists in all science fields. He is the recipient of Public Health Education Leadership Award for significant contributions in promoting public health education in the WHO’s South-East Asia Region.
Professor Zodpey has contributed significantly to the field of environmental and occupational health. He is a life member of Indian Association of Occupational Health (IAOH) and Association of Agricultural Medicine and Rural Health in India. He was also the member of International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) during 2008-09. He served as Secretary of Vidarbha Branch of Indian Association of Occupational Health during 2006-07. He has been an active member of IAOH and participated in several scientific deliberations organized by IAOH through conferences, CME programs and workshops.
He served on numerous distinguished panels, advisory groups, technical task forces and academic & research committees in the field of environmental and occupational health. He was the Chair of Research Advisory Council of National Institute of Miners’ Health, Ministry of Mines, Government of India. He is the Chairperson of Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) of National Institute for Research in Environmental Health (NIREH), Bhopal, Indian Council of Medical Research. He has delivered prestigious orations in the field of environmental and occupational health which include NIREH Foundation Day Oration-2022, Dr. KM Bhansali Memorial Oration-2022 and 4th Dr. BS Sajjan Endowment Oration. He has served as Member on the Editorial Board of Indian Journal of Occupational and environmental Medicine (IJOEM). Professor Zodpey has authored 64 scientific publications in international and Indian peer reviewed journals in the field of environmental and occupational health. He is recipient of BEL-IND Award for his research work in the field of Occupational Health.
Dr. Raj Shankar Ghosh
Dr. Raj Shankar Ghosh is a physician trained in public health. His work has been primarily on health systems, management of infectious diseases and in One Health recently. He has primarily been engaged in public health program policies, planning and implementation in his work life.
He is currently overseeing the work of the PHFI Centre for Environmental Health. This includes work around research, evidence generation, advocacy, capacity building and providing technical assistance for sustainable climate resilient health systems.