Soumya Swaminathan

Soumya Swaminathan (born 2 May 1959) is an Indian paediatrician and clinical scientist known for her research on tuberculosis and HIV. Since March 2019, Swaminathan has served as the Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization. Previously, from October 2017 to March 2019, she was the Deputy Director General of Programmes (DDP) at the World Health Organization.

Early life and education

Swaminathan was born in Chennai, India. Swaminathan is the daughter of "Father of Green Revolution of India", M. S. Swaminathan and Indian educationalist Mina Swaminathan. Swaminathan has two siblings, Madhura Swaminathan, a professor of economics at the Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore, and Nithya Swaminathan, a Senior Lecturer in Gender Analysis in International Development at the University of East Anglia.

Swaminathan 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. As part of her training, from 1987 to 1989 Swaminathan completed a post-doctoral medical fellowship in neonatology and pediatric pulmonology at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Career

Early career

From 1989 to 1990, Swaminathan 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 New Jersey.

In 1992, Swaminathan joined the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis a/k/a Tuberculosis Research Centre, where she was Coordinator, Neglected Tropical Diseases. She later became the director of the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis.

From 2009 to 2011, Swaminathan was Coordinator of the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases in Geneva.

Until 2013, she was Director, National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT) in Chennai.

From August 2015 to November 2017, Swaminathan was Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Secretary of the Department of Health Research (Ministry of Health & Family Welfare) for the Government of India.

Career with WHO

From October 2017 to March 2019, Swaminathan was Deputy Director-General of the World Health Organization.

In March 2019, Swaminathan became Chief Scientist of the World Health Organization, where she participated in regular twice weekly press briefings on the COVID-19 pandemic. She has urged countries to conduct whole genome sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 virus more frequently and to upload sequences to the GISAID project.

In the preparations for the Global Health Summit hosted by the European Commission and the G20 in May 2021, Swaminathan was a member of the event's High Level Scientific Panel.

Selected research

Swaminathan's areas of interest are pediatric 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, Swaminathan started a multi-disciplinary group of clinical, laboratory and behavioural scientists studying various aspects of TB and TB/HIV. Swaminathan 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. She was part of the TB Zero City Project which aimed to create "Islands of elimination" working with local governments, institutions and grassroots associations.

In 2021, Swanminathan was also appointed to the Pandemic Preparedness Partnership (PPP), an expert group chaired by Patrick Vallance to advise the G7 presidency held by the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Other activities

• Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, Member of the Board
• Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Non-Voting Member of the Board
• 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

Awards

• 1999: XI National Pediatric Pulmonary Conference, Dr. Keya Lahiri Gold Medal for best paper
• 2008: Indian Council of Medical Research, Kshanika Oration Award
• 2009: International Union against TB and Lung Diseases, Vice-Chair, HIV section
• 2011: Indian Academy of Pediatrics, Fellow
• 2011: Indian Association of Applied Microbiologists, Lifetime Achievement Award
• 2012: Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Award
• 2012: National Academy of Sciences, India, Fellow
• 2013: Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, Fellow,
• 2016: NIPER, ASTRAZENECA research endowment award

Personal life

Swaminathan is married to Ajit Yadav, an orthopedic surgeon.

Selected works and publications

• Murray, Christopher J L; Barber, Ryan M; Foreman, Kyle J; Ozgoren, Ayse Abbasoglu; Abd-Allah, Foad; Abera, Semaw F; Aboyans, Victor; Abraham, Jerry P; Abubakar, Ibrahim; Abu-Raddad, Laith J; Abu-Rmeileh, Niveen M; Achoki, Tom; Ackerman, Ilana N; Ademi, Zanfina; Adou, Arsène K; Adsuar, José C; Afshin, Ashkan; Agardh, Emilie E; ...; Swaminathan, Soumya (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.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) Wikidata ()
• Forouzanfar, Mohammad H; Alexander, Lily; Anderson, H Ross; Bachman, Victoria F; Biryukov, Stan; Brauer, Michael; Burnett, Richard; Casey, Daniel; Coates, Matthew M; Cohen, Aaron; Delwiche, Kristen; Estep, Kara; Frostad, Joseph J; KC, Astha; Kyu, Hmwe H; Moradi-Lakeh, Maziar; Ng, Marie; Slepak, Erica Leigh; ...; Swaminathan, Soumya (December 2015). "Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks in 188 countries, 1990–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013". The Lancet. 386 (10010): 2287–2323. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(15)00128-2. PMC 4685753. PMID 26364544.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) Wikidata ()