Giridhara R Babu
Head, Life course Epidemiology, Public Health Foundation of India (India)
Giridhara has a medical degree (MBBS) from Kasturba medical college Manipal and has completed MPH and PhD from UCLA (University of California Los Angeles). He has two decades of experience in public health research, practice and academics. He began his career at the Center for Community Medicine of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi as a Junior Resident. Next, he worked with World Health Organization where he led the efforts in stopping polio transmission in the state of Karnataka. He initiated advocacy for Measles surveillance in Karnataka leading to constitution of Multi Year Plan (MYP) for Measles elimination in India. He is awarded the intermediate and now the senior fellowship of Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance to start and expand cohort study. The cohort is named as MAASTHI (Maternal Antecedents of Adiposity Studying the Transgenerational role of Hyperglycemia and Insulin).
He is the lead PI on the Team Science Grant by the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance where he will be leading a consortium of 18 investigators across 6 premiere public health institutions in India. This research program titled Nutritional, psychosocial and environmental determinants of neurodevelopment and child mental health (COINCIDE) aims to evaluate how multiple factors in a child’s immediate environment impact their development in the first decade of their life starting from pregnancy. Giridhara has over 100 papers published in national and international high impact journals. He has served on several national and international committees. Some of them include Lancet Commission Task force on COVID19, ICMR National Task Force for COVID-I9 and the Technical Analysis Committee of the Government of Karnataka. He is the regional representative for LMICs on the DoHaD international society. He is actively involved in writing articles for the general public, providing his expert opinion to media houses and consultation to several states. More details can be accessed from https://giridhar.org/covid-19/