LISTED ALPHABETICALLY

Smisha Agarwal, PhD

Assistant Professor Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Dr. Agarwal's research is aimed at improving maternal and newborn health in low-income settings through strengthening community health systems and leveraging innovative technological solutions. Over the last decade, she has developed methods for evaluating programs that employ digital tools such as mobile phones for health service delivery. She has also led a series of systematic Cochrane reviews that have been leveraged by the WHO to develop global guidelines on the use of digital tools to strengthen health services. She continues to work with bilateral and multilateral agencies to support development and implementation of routine health information systems. Specifically, her research is focused on- 1. The effectiveness of the use of digital devices by community health workers as decision-aids to improve delivery of primary health care services, especially for mothers and infants; 2. Using predictive analytics and machine learning algorithms based on routine monitoring data to enhance our understanding of quality of care, create safety nets to care for high-risk populations and improve effectiveness of reproductive health services; 3. Use of social media websites and data to understand health patterns and behaviors. Currently, she is working in collaboration with the Population Council, and colleagues at Pathfinder International (Uganda) and Zanmi Lasante (Haiti) to conduct a multi-country study using discrete choice experiments to understand incentive preferences of community health workers in Kenya, Bangladesh, Uganda and Haiti.

Topics
  • Digital Health
  • Maternal & Child Health

Rina Agarwala, PhD

Associate Professor; Director of Undergraduate Studies Krieger School of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Agarwala studies how vulnerable populations, particularly workers, assert their rights through social movements. Her research has examined a range of working populations (including informal workers and migrant workers), workers’ identities (including class, gender, and caste), and worker industries (including construction, tobacco manufacturing, garment manufacturing, trash collection, domestic work, and agricultural labor).

Topics
  • Human Rights
  • Political Sciences

Abdulgafoor Bachani, PhD, MHS

Associate Professor Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

My research focuses on health systems, as well as developing and implementing innovative approaches to measuring the burden of and preventing injury and disabilities, as well as enhancing access to rehabilitation services. I hold a particular interest in developing approaches for: 1) the measurement of disability and understanding the long-term health, economic, and societal consequences of injuries; 2) enhancing the generation and use of valid and reliable data for injury prevention, disability, and rehabilitation in low-resource settings; 3) applying novel information and communication technology approaches to injury prevention, disability, and rehabilitation; and, 4) developing sustainable capacity for research and practice in the field of injury prevention, disability, and rehabilitation.

Topics
  • Digital Health
  • Health Systems
  • Injury Prevention

Judy Bass, PhD, MPH

Associate Professor Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Our global mental health program, housed within the department of Mental Health, takes a multi-disciplinary collaborative approach to create actionable solutions to the promotion of mental health, and the prevention and treatment of mental health and psychosocial problems in low-resource contexts around the world.

Topics
  • Mental Health

Sara Bennett, PhD

Professor & Associate Chair in the International Health Department; Director of the Health Systems Program; GKII Faculty Co-Chair Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Sara Bennett, PhD, is an accomplished and respected figure in the field of health policy and systems research. As a Professor and Associate Chair in the International Health Department of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, she also serves as the Director of the Health Systems Program. Her areas of expertise include health workforce issues such as motivation and planning, health financing, and health markets in low- and middle-income countries. Dr. Bennett’s research has had a significant impact on the development of the field, and she has made important contributions to institutional capacity development, health systems governance, and the use of evidence in policy and decision-making. Her career includes both academic and policy positions, including former Chair of Health Systems Global, editor of Health Policy and Planning, and Executive Director of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research at the World Health Organization. Dr. Bennett’s dedication to bridging the gap between academia and practice, as well as building institutional capacity for health research internationally, is evident in her strong commitment to making a real-world impact. She graduated with distinction from Oxford (MA), Cambridge (MPhil) and London School of Economics (PhD). Follow Dr. Bennett on Twitter @saracbennett for updates on her latest research and thoughts on health policy and systems.

Topics
  • Health Systems
  • Policy
  • Public Health
  • International Health

Chetan Bettegowda, MD, PhD

Jennison and Novak Families Professor of Neurosurgery Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

We are working to develop biomarkers for cancer of the central nervous system. In particular, we are studying ways to detect tumor derived DNA in the CSF of individuals with brain cancers. We hope the levels of tumor derived DNA can be used to aid in clinical decision making.

Topics
  • Neurosurgery
  • Cancer

Uttara Bharath Kumar, MHS

Senior Program Officer II Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Technical Advisor for Social and Behavior Change (SBC) Team Leader for Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) India Uttara Bharath Kumar works on the research, design, implementation and evaluation of global interventions that address social, structural and behavioral barriers to positive health outcomes. Since 1993, she has worked in health areas ranging from RNMCH, HIV/AIDs, TB and malaria to non-communicable diseases, including cancers and mental health. Drawing from behavioral science, design thinking, entertainment-education and other SBC approaches, some of the programs she has led in Africa and Asia, have won prestigious awards. In addition to co-facilitating SBC capacity strengthening workshops and courses in 15 countries, she had led the annual South Asia Regional workshop on Leadership in Strategic Communication (LSC) since 2012. She has also been closely involved in founding and mentoring locally-governed SBC organizations in India and Zambia.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • HIV
  • Tuberculosis
  • Mental Health
  • Non-Communicable Diseases
  • Cancer
  • Public Health

Robert Bollinger, MD, MPH

Raj & Kamla Gupta Professor of Infectious Diseases; Professor of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Bollinger is the Raj and Kamla Gupta Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine, and he holds joint appointments in International Health at the Johns Hopkins (JH) Bloomberg School of Public Health, and in Community Public Health at the JH School of Nursing. He is the Founding Director of the JH Center for Clinical Global Health Education (now CCGHE-ID), Associate Director for Medicine of the JH Center for Global Health, and serves on the Advisory Team for the Johns Hopkins Precision Medicine Center of Excellence for COVID-19. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in internal medicine and infectious diseases.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • COVID-19
  • Hepatitis
  • HIV
  • Pneumonia
  • Tuberculosis

Rebecca M. Brown, PhD

Professor of Art History & Chair of Advanced Academic Programs in Museum Studies and Cultural Heritage Management Krieger School of Arts and Sciences

Rebecca M. Brown’s research engages in the history of art, architecture, and visual culture of South Asia from the late eighteenth century to the present. Her publications focus on the British colonial era, the anti-colonial movement, art after India’s independence, and the politics of display in the long 1980s. Her current research examines the works of painter KCS Paniker (1911–77). She is also writing on Dayanita Singh, Annu Palakunnathu Matthew, and Rina Banerjee.

Topics
  • Art

Irina Burd, Professor

Director, IRCFM Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Burd developed a research program studying the pathogenesis of fetal brain injury with exposure to intrauterine inflammation. She studies prenatally used neuroprotective agents that could be used in utero to prevent cerebral palsy and a spectrum of neurobehavioral outcomes.

Topics
  • Maternal & Child Health
  • Obstetrics & Gynecology

Nilanjan Chatterjee, PhD

Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

I collaborate with the Center for Cancer Epidemiology at the Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital, Mumbai, in designing and analyzing genetic and epidemiologic studies across cancers of different sites. This collaboration has led to discovery of new genetic risk locus of gall bladder cancer (Mahatre et al., Lancet Oncology, 2017) and characterization of risk of breast and gallbladder cancers with respect to various lifestyle and reproductive factors. I am also in close contact with educators and researchers from a number of statistical and data science institutes in India including the Indian Statistical Institute (my alma mater) and the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics.

Topics
  • Data Science
  • Cancer

Shoumitro Chatterjee, PhD

Assistant Professor of International Economics School of Advanced International Studies

Shoumitro Chatterjee is an Assistant Professor of International Economics at Johns Hopkins SAIS. Before joining SAIS, he was a faculty at the Pennsylvania State University and Georgetown University. Professor Chatterjee’s research is at the intersection of trade and development economics. One strand of his research focuses on trade in agricultural markets and supply chains, where he studies issues related to market power, inefficiencies, and low farmer incomes. In India, Professor Chatterjee’s research has examined the consequences of on inter-state trade restrictions on the agricultural sector, and of farm subsidies on the environment. Along with a team of inter-disciplinary researchers, he has also conducted a large-scale study of agricultural markets, supply chains and intermediaries in the three states of Punjab, Bihar, and Odisha. Another strand of his research related to the study of globalization, structural transformation, and development.

Topics
  • Economics

Rama Chellappa, PhD

Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Whiting School of Engineering

Rama Chellappa, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University is a leading researcher in the area of artificial intelligence. His work in computer vision, pattern recognition, and machine learning have had a profound impact on areas including biometrics, smart cars, forensics, and 2D and 3D modeling of faces, objects, and terrain. His work in motion capturing and imaging shows promise for future use in health care and medicine. He joined Johns Hopkins after 29 years at the University of Maryland, where he served lengthy stretches as chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Center for Automation Research. He is a member of Johns Hopkins’ Mathematical Institute for Data Science, the Center for Imaging Science, the Center for Language and Speech Processing and the Institute for Assured Autonomy. Chellappa’s research has shaped the field of facial recognition technology—developing detailed face models based on shape, appearance, texture, and bone and muscle structure. Under a recent program called Janus, he and his team have developed a high-accuracy face recognition system that serves critical needs for federal and commercial sectors. The team has also worked on modeling facial expressions, with potential for a variety of medical applications. He also is known as an expert in machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence that instructs computer systems to perform tasks based on patterns and inferences. In one recent experiment, Chellappa and colleagues tested the skills of expert forensic facial examiners against the skills of machines; as it turned out, the best results came when both sides worked together. This research has implications for how machine learning algorithms can help doctors diagnose disease. Chellappa has also worked on gait analysis, which can apply to an enormous range of uses—everything from diagnosing Parkinson’s disease to human identification at a distance. He was born and raised in South India, near Chennai, and studied at the University of Madras and the Indian Institute of Science before attending Purdue University in Indiana, which was then building an international reputation for a branch of machine learning known as statistical pattern recognition. Chellappa is the 2020 recipient of the Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal for his contributions to image and video processing, particularly face recognition. This is one of the top honors from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), where Chellappa is a life fellow and previously served as editor-in-chief of journals. Among many other honors, Chellappa has also won technical achievement awards from the IEEE Computer Society and the IEEE Signal Processing Society; the latter also awarded him with its highest honor, the Society Award. He earned his doctorate in electrical engineering there, studying under mentors including K. Fukunaga, R.L. Kayshyap, and K.S. Fu. (Some three decades later, Chellappa won the esteemed award named for K.S. Fu, from the International Association of Pattern Recognition.) His interest in biomedical engineering dates back to these years when he designed a cardiac pacemaker as his capstone project. During his doctoral studies, he also conducted research at the University of Maryland (UMD) with Azriel Rosenfeld, one of the founding fathers of computer vision. The mentorship launched his career in this field, which trains computers to identify, classify, and understand digital images. Chellappa later joined UMD as a professor in 1991, after 10 years at the University of Southern California.

Topics
  • Data Science
  • Digital Health

Steven Clipman, PhD, MSPH

Instructor of Medicine Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Our group’s work in India is focused on computational and molecular methods for improving HIV- and hepatitis C-related outcomes among key populations, such as people who inject drugs and men who have sex with men. We utilize social and spatial network analysis and phylogenetic models to understand viral transmission dynamics and are exploring machine learning methods to optimize treatment and prevention for HIV and hepatitis C.

Topics
  • Data Science
  • Hepatitis
  • HIV

Svea Closser, MPH, PhD

Associate Professor Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

I am a medical anthropologist, and I use ethnographic methods to explore the complexities of public health policymaking and implementation. I work primarily with colleagues in North India on issues related to Primary Health Care, including understanding the experiences of ASHAs; promoting community accountability for PHC; and exploring the relationship between vertical programs and the NRHM.

Topics
  • Primary Healthcare
  • Policy
  • Community Health
  • Vaccines

Joanna Cohen, PhD

Bloomberg Professor of Disease Prevention Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

We collaborate on tobacco control policy studies in India. We also offer a range of tobacco control capacity building programs, including full scholarships to competitive applicants for our Global Tobacco Control Certificate Program.

Topics
  • Behavioral Science
  • Policy
  • Substance Use

Lauren Czaplicki, PhD, MPH

Assistant Scientist Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

I conduct tobacco control research to investigate how corporate actions – and public health interventions developed to address these actions – impact behavior and perceptions at the population level. My research in India uses qualitative methods to explore how to reduce attractiveness of tobacco marketing through tobacco control policy interventions.

Topics
  • Behavioral Science
  • Policy

Sam Das, PhD

Assistant Professor Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

I work on freely circulating or encapsulated inside exosomes RNA-based diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers.

Topics
  • Genomics
  • Critical Care

Ted Dawson, M.D., Ph.D.

Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Professor in Neurodegenerative Diseases Director, Institute for Cell Engineering Professor, Departments of Neurology, Neuroscience and Pharmacology & Molecular Sciences Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Dawson has made important discoveries on how neurons die in genetic and sporadic models of Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Dawson's discoveries are enabling clinical strategies for disease modifying therapies and biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer's disease as well as other neurodegenerative disorders.

Topics
  • Neurodegenerative Diseases

Kunchok Dorjee, MBBS, PhD, MPH

Assistant Professor of Medicine Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

I am broadly interested in infectious diseases. I direct a TB elimination campaign–Zero TB Kids–that seeks to eliminate TB for Tibetan refugee children using a multi-pronged approach of community mobilization, screening, treatment, and preventive therapy. Additionally, I am engaged in implementation and clinical research related to Covid-19 vaccine strategies and hepatitis B control, and etiologic research on H. pylori infection and related gastric cancer.

Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Hepatitis
  • HIV
  • Tuberculosis

David Dowdy, MD, PhD

Associate Professor Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

I am involved in a number of projects related to TB control in India.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Tuberculosis

Anna Durbin, MD

Professor, International Health and Director of the Center for Immunization Research Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

My work focuses on the development and evaluation of vaccines for emerging infectious diseases such as dengue and Zika. I have collaborated with vaccine manufacturers in India to manufacture and evaluate a live attenuated tetravalent dengue vaccine in India. The U.S. National Institutes of Health as licensed this technology to several vaccine manufacturers in India with the goal of in-country production and delivery of this vaccine to benefit those at risk in India.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Vaccines

Cyrus Engineer, DrPH, MHS, MHA

Professor of the Practice & Associate Chair, Academic Programs Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Dr. Engineer has become deeply engaged in India on a grant led by Dr. David Peters at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, leading work on how to ‘restructure’ the directorate of medical health in the state of Uttar Pradesh – a large and complex assignment for a directorate responsible for the health of over 200 million people. Their analyses and engagement in the directorate has led to plans for strengthening training and development infrastructure, delivery and content in public health and management for the health workforce in Uttar Pradesh.

Topics
  • Health Systems

Dani Fallin, PhD

Professor and Chair Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

I chair the Department of Mental Health, the only department of its kind in a School of Public Health in the world. I also lead a center dedicated to public health approaches to autism spectrum disorder.

Topics
  • Autism
  • Mental Health

Jason Farley, PhD, MPH, ANP-BC, RN

Endowed Professor of Nursing Leadership and Innovation / Infectious Disease Nurse Practitioner Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

I am an Endowed Professor of Nursing Innovation and Leadership at The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and direct the Center for Infectious Disease and Nursing Innovation. As an Infectious Disease Nurse Epidemiologist and a Nurse Practitioner in the Division of Infectious Diseases at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, my clinical practice in the John Bartlett Specialty Practice spans HIV prevention, treatment and associated co-infections, namely Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. In India, my work has focused on capacity building related to infectious disease training (HIV, TB, PrEP) as well as TB infection control studies among healthcare workers. In collaboration with the Center for Global Health, I support post-doctoral students in research mentorship.

Topics
  • Digital Health
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Nursing

Charles Flexner, MD

Professor Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Charles W. Flexner, MD, is the Principal Investigator of the Long Acting/Extended Release Antiretroviral Resource Program (LEAP). He is Professor of Medicine in the Divisions of Clinical Pharmacology and Infectious Diseases, and Professor of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is also Professor of International Health in the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Flexner is an expert on the basic and clinical pharmacology of drugs for HIV/AIDS and related infections, including viral hepatitis and tuberculosis. His scientific contributions include work on the important roles of pharmacokinetic enhancement, adherence, and dosing frequency in the long-term management of HIV/AIDS.

Topics
  • Drug Discovery
  • Hepatitis
  • HIV
  • Tuberculosis

Kevin Frick, PhD

Professor Carey School of Business

Kevin Frick has worked on the economic evaluation of interventions to limit the incidence of blindness and visual impairment as well as to limit the impact of the conditions. He applied his expertise in studies focusing on the economic impact of conditions related to the eye (and other areas of health) and the cost-effectiveness of preventing and treating the same.

Topics
  • Business of Health
  • Economics
  • Eye Disease

Sandra Gabelli, PhD

Associate Professor Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

We are interested in studying molecular abnormalities that underlie diseases to design targeted molecular therapies. Specifically, alterations in the regulation and protein: protein interaction due to mutations are implicated from cardiovascular disease to cancer. Understanding the structural and mechanistic details of each signaling event and the protein-protein interactions involved is our key to design the next generation of targeted therapies.

Duvuru Geetha, MBBS, MRCP

Professor of Clinical Medicine Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

My clinical and research focus is on glomerular diseases with a special interest in small vessel vasculitis.

Topics
  • Nephrology

Jonathan Golub, PhD, MPH

Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology, and International Health Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Jonathan Golub, PhD, MPH brings more than 20 years of experience focusing on the epidemiology, detection, and prevention of TB in low and middle-income countries and the many drivers associated with TB acquisition, progression, and treatment outcomes. He is a Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology, and International Health at the Johns Hopkins Schools of Medicine and Public Health. He is experienced in developing and implementing research studies for TB in Brazil, South Africa and India, leading and managing large research teams in these countries. Current NIH grants that he is leading include: implementation of a new test and treat strategy for latent TB infection among people with HIV in Brazil (PREVINE); an RCT comparing strategies for detecting recurrent TB among people who have completed TB treatment in India, and extent of pulmonary impairment at the end of TB treatment and beyond (TB Aftermath); an RCT comparing strategies for pulmonary rehabilitation for reducing pulmonary impairment among people with TB in India (TB PuRe); and an RCT comparing smoking cessation interventions among people with HIV in South Africa (Tlogela). Previously, he has led smoking cessation studies and tobacco prevalence studies among people with HIV and people with TB patients in several LMICs and he has also investigated the impact of diabetes on TB outcomes in India. He is currently leading implementation research studies looking at novel ways to increase TB preventive therapy among HIV-infected patients in several African countries through Unitaid’s IMPAACT4TB. He is currently the JHU Research Development Team Lead Investigator, overseeing the SMART4TB Technical Area teams at JHU and with partners for the USAID funded project. He has served on WHO expert panels for operational research and guideline development groups for developing TB screening guidelines. He is actively involved in Fogarty training grants in India and South Africa (currently site-PI with University of Witswatersrand) and was PI for 11 years for a Fogarty HIV/TB training program in Brazil, which was expanded to include trainees from Mozambique, India and Brazil. He is currently Director of the Developmental Core for the JHU Tuberculosis Research Advancement Center (TRAC). Finally, he has taught the Epidemiologic Basis for Tuberculosis Control at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for 18 years and has taught the course in South Africa, Brazil and India as well.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • HIV
  • Tuberculosis
  • Diabetes
  • Public Health
  • International Health

Gigi Gronvall, PhD

Associate Professor, EHE; Senior Scholar, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

We host and facilitate an ongoing Track II (nongovernmental) dialogue on biosecurity between experts in India and the United States. There are multiple goals for the dialogue: to expand knowledge and understanding between India and the United States about biological threats; increase awareness and probability of exchanges for early warning and detection of unusual biological events; deepen relationships between participants to serve as technical resources to each other going forward; and to identify issues that may warrant official government-to-government priority.

Topics
  • Policy
  • Health Security

Venkat Gundareddy, MBBS, MPH

Assistant Professor Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Wish to engage in capacity building and streamlining clinical operations.

Amita Gupta, MD, MHS

Professor of Medicine and Public Health; Director, Division of Infectious Diseases; GKII Faculty Co-Chair Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Gupta is Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She is also Faculty Co-chair of the Gupta-Klinsky India Institute at Johns Hopkins University, and Professor of Infectious Diseases at the JH School of Medicine, with a joint appointment in International Health at the JH Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • HIV
  • Tuberculosis

Anita Gupta, DO, MPP, PharmD

Adjunct Assistant Professor Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Anita Gupta is an adjunct assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine and pain medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her areas of clinical expertise include pain medicine, health policy, biotechnology, drug development, corporate and government affairs.

Topics
  • Digital Health
  • Drug Discovery

Bhakti Hansoti, MBChB, MPH, PhD

Associate Professor Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

COVID-19, Emergency and Critical Care technical director for the USAID funded RISE project working to building clinical case management capacity and health systems resilience in over 20 states.

Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Emergency Care

Rebecca Heidkamp, PhD

Associate Scientist Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

I lead DataDENT (www.datadent.org), an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to strengthen nutrition measurement for policy planning and decision making. The DataDENT work in India is led by IFPRI and is focused on a) harmonizing measurement across partners involved in the National Nutrition Program (Poshan Abhiyaan) including for COVID-19 impacts and response, b) improving nutrition data decision tools (e.g. dashboards) and c) strengthening measurement of nutrition sensitive social protection programs.

Topics
  • Nutrition
  • Program Evaluation

Ben Hobbs, PhD

Theodore & Kay Schad Professor of Environmental Management Whiting School of Engineering

Collaborating with Puneet Chitkara (KPMG, India) and Johannes Urpelainen (SAIS-JHU) on building grid operations and planning models for India. This builds on previous experience in South Asia with the World Bank.

Topics
  • Energy
  • Environment & Climate

Yujung Hwang, PhD

Assistant Professor Krieger School of Arts and Sciences

Professor Hwang is working on caste identity and caste discrimination in India. She is preparing fieldwork to interview people on how people form caste identity and how they perceive discrimination by caste in India.

Topics
  • Impact of Race and Culture

Amit Jain, MD

Associate Professor Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Amit Jain, MD is an Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Neurosurgery, and Chief of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Jain is interested in health economics and global surgery. He has strong ties to academic centers in India. He has over 200 publications and multiple research grants.

Topics
  • Orthopedic Surgery

Julia Johnson, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology, JHUSOM; Assistant Professor of International Health, GDEC, JHSPH Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Since September 2016, I have been performing CDC-supported research to assess the epidemiology of neonatal sepsis in NICUs in India and to develop interventions to reduce rates of sepsis, and a related study was funded in 2018 to assess reservoirs of transmission for organisms associated with sepsis in the NICU. I am particularly interested in describing the epidemiology of colonization and infection with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including identifying reservoirs of transmission and using novel techniques in healthcare epidemiology to reduce risk of healthcare-associated infections. I receive current NIH support to continue this work in India.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Antimicrobial Resistance
  • Maternal & Child Health
  • Neonatology

Anna Kalbarczyk, DrPH, MPH

Assistant Scientist Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

In collaboration with colleagues at IIHMR, Jaipur, I have conducted implementation research that seeks to map, synthesize, and translate knowledge from polio eradication. Other key projects include evaluation of student training sites in Pune, Banglaore, Hyderabad, and Delhi.

Aastha Kant, PhD

MCHI Assistant Director - Research Programs Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Dr. Aastha Kant is Assistant Director of Research Programs at the Johns Hopkins Maternal and Child Health Center India. She is based in India and is the point of contact for programmatic activities undertaken by the Maternal and Child Health Center India. Dr. Kant holds a Ph.D in Social Sciences from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and received her training in Sociology with her Master of Arts (MA) from University of Pune and Bachelor of Arts (BA) from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi. She has previously worked at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health- India Research Center, TISS and Population Council- India Country Office. She is broadly interested in the social and behavioral aspects of reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health.

Topics
  • Maternal & Child Health
  • Sociology

Petros Karakousis, MD

Professor of Medicine and International Health Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Karakousis and his team are using a systems biology-based approach to understand the immunological basis of latent tuberculosis infection and reactivation disease. He is interested in identifying novel biomarkers for predicting the risk of reactivation and assessing the adequacy of tuberculosis treatment.

Topics
  • Tuberculosis

Joanne Katz, ScD

Professor Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Analyses of data from two studies including the Aravind Comprehensive Eye Survey (ACES) and the Vitamin A Study in Newborns (VASIN). Both studies were conducted in collaboration with the Aravind Eye Hospitals in Madurai. Tamil Nadu.

Topics
  • Maternal & Child Health
  • International Health

Caitlin Kennedy, PhD, MPH

Associate Professor Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

I have collaborated on a few HIV-related projects, including PrEP use and community mobilization for sex workers and a matrimonial service for people living with HIV.

Topics
  • HIV
  • International Health

Ryan Kennedy, Phd

Associate Professor Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Dr. Kennedy has worked in tobacco control for 20 years. His research aims to support the development, implementation and evaluation of tobacco control policies globally. In India Kennedy has lead numerous studies to measure tobacco vendor density, assess compliance with smoke-free laws and understand tobacco industry advertising and promotion in retail settings.

Topics
  • Policy
  • Public Health

Nitu Kitchloo, PhD

Professor of Mathematics Krieger School of Arts and Sciences

Nitu Kitchloo is a professor in the Department of Mathematics at Johns Hopkins. In the early part of Professor Kitchloo's career, he was an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins before moving to the University of California, San Diego as an associate professor in 2004. In 2010, he returned to Johns Hopkins as a professor.

Topics
  • Education
  • Mathematics

Susrutha Kotwal, MD, SFHM

Assistant Professor of Medicine Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

I am interested in medication education and patient safety as it relates to India. Specifically, I am interested in teaching and evaluation/assessment of clinical reasoning in India with the hope of reducing diagnostic errors in the long run.

Topics
  • Education
  • Diagnostics
  • Medicine

Pravin Krishna, PhD

Chung Ju Yung Distinguished Professor of International Economics and Business School of Advanced International Studies

Pravin Krishna is the Chung Ju Yung Distinguished Professor of International Economics and Business at Johns Hopkins University, where he is jointly appointed in the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC and the Department of Economics in the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences (KSAS) in Baltimore. Professor Krishna is also Co-Chair of the Bernard L. Schwartz Globalization Initiative at Johns Hopkins SAIS and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Professor Krishna has previously been Professor of Economics at Brown University and has also held appointments at a number of other universities, including the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Princeton University, Stanford University and INSEAD. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Topics
  • Business of Health
  • Economics

Pankaj Kumar, PhD

Research Associate Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr Kumar’s interests involve the structural, biophysical and molecular basis of tuberculosis pathogenesis and the development of anti-tubercular drugs. His recent work has led to new TB drugs and point-of-care diagnostics against tuberculosis.

Topics
  • Structural Biology
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Diagnostics
  • Drug Discovery

Sunil Kumar, PhD

President of Tufts University Johns Hopkins University

Sunil Kumar took office as the 15th provost of Johns Hopkins University on September 1, 2016. In this role, Kumar is the chief academic officer and second-ranking member of the senior administration, responsible for promoting and coordinating the University’s teaching and research mission. He oversees the university’s nine schools as well as several interdisciplinary programs and academic centers. Dr. Kumar serves as Chairman Ex Officio of the Johns Hopkins India Institute.

Topics
  • Administration

Catherine Ling, PhD FNP-BC CNE FAANP FAAN

Associate Professor Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

My current work focuses on improving access to primary care through community-based solutions. Nursing is a critical partner in the design, implementation and measurement of these solutions. We are working with communities from Baltimore to Guatemala and the next generation of nurses to improve health literacy, address social determinants of health and well-being.

Topics
  • Primary Healthcare
  • Community Health

Gregory Lucas, MD, PhD

Professor Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

I focus on key populations (PWID, MSM) in India, with an aim to improving harm reduction, HIV/HCV prevention, and HIV/HCV treatment. My colleagues and I have conducted large multi-city surveys of key populations in India to characterize epidemiology and HIV/HCV care continua. We have conducted cluster-randomized trials and individual randomized trials to evaluate efficacy. Our work also includes implementation science.

Topics
  • Hepatitis
  • HIV
  • Substance Use

Maria Knoll, PhD

Senior Scientist Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Efforts have included estimating the number of pneumococcal pneumonia and meningitis cases and deaths overall and by state since the year 2000. Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) was recently introduced into the immunization program of several high burden states and recent efforts have included assessing its impact on vaccine-type pneumococcal carriage, chest x-ray confirmed pneumonia, and severity of disease in hospitalized pneumonia cases and on vaccine-type pneumococcal carriage in healthy children in the community.

Topics
  • Pneumonia
  • Vaccines

Sheela Magge, MD

Director, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology Professor of Pediatrics Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

At Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, Sheela N. Magge, MD, MSCE is Director of the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and the Lawson Wilkins Endowed Chair of Pediatric Endocrinology. Dr. Magge is a clinician investigator dedicated to improving the lives of children with type 2 diabetes, obesity, and insulin resistance, as well as the cardiovascular implications of these conditions. She has performed patient-oriented research throughout her career. She received a NIH K23 award for research on dyslipidemia and CV risk factors in pediatric obesity and type 2 diabetes (2007). She was co-principal investigator of an NIH NICHD R01 study of cardiometabolic risk and obesity in adolescents with Down syndrome, awarded in 2012. She is currently the principal investigator of a 2018 NIH NIDDK R01 award studying the differential cardiometabolic risk among South Asian adolescents in the US, compared with that for African-American and white peers, related to body composition. This study is examining mechanistic differences influencing diabetes risk. Dr Magge is the Johns Hopkins principal investigator of a new NIDDK U01: DISCOVERY study of risk factors for type 2 diabetes among youth, to determine the greatest predictors of developing type 2 diabetes during childhood. Dr. Magge’s expertise led to her appointment to the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition from 2012-2018. She has numerous peer-reviewed publications.

Topics
  • Adolescent Health
  • Maternal & Child Health
  • Medicine
  • Pediatrics
  • Non-Communicable Diseases
  • Cardiovascular Disease
  • Diabetes
  • Hypertension
  • Public Health

Kunihiro Matsushita, MD, PhD

Associate Professor Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Dr. Matsushita is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine and a member of the Welch Center. He has expertise in risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD), including hypertension. He is co-directing a team at Hopkins supporting activities of the Resolve to Save Lives (RTSL). In this context, he has been collaborating with the RTSL India office, the Indian Council of Medical Research, and the WHO India office.

Topics
  • Cardiovascular Disease
  • Hypertension

Vidya Mave, MD, MPH & TM

Associate Professor, JHUSOM; Director, Indo-JHU Research Program, Pune, India Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

I have more than 18 years of experience in clinical practice, education, and research in infectious diseases. I direct all clinical research activities for the Indo-JHU program, which conducts phase I, II, and III clinical trials of therapeutic drug interventions for HIV and co-morbid infections, including TB and hepatitis, in adults (including pregnant women) and children in Pune, India. My research interests includes antimicrobial resistance, comorbidities (including diabetes, HIV), and the use of novel tools (Hair PK, whole genome sequencing, host biomarkers) to study TB treatment outcomes.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Antimicrobial Resistance
  • HIV
  • Tuberculosis
  • Maternal & Child Health
  • Non-Communicable Diseases

Conor McMeniman, PhD

Assistant Professor Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria are a major threat to public health in India. Our research program uses integrative methodology spanning the fields of invertebrate neurobiology, analytical chemistry and genome-engineering to understand molecular and cellular basis of mosquito attraction to humans. We aspire to apply such knowledge to generate powerful new strategies to control of mosquito-borne diseases in the region.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases

Kayur Mehta, MD

Assistant Scientist Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Dr. Mehta is Assistant Scientist at the International Vaccine Access Center. He is a pediatric infectious disease specialist with a focus on infectious disease epidemiology and maternal and child health, particularly in low- and middle-income country settings. He has several years of clinical and research experience in infectious diseases and child health in India, Nepal and Canada. He is a co-investigator on the PREVAIL project, which aims to evaluate the impact of the rollout of the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) in India’s Universal Immunization Program. Dr. Mehta is also the Associate Director of Research at the Johns Hopkins Maternal and Child Health Center India, where his current research focuses on understanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal and child health services in India, and also on understanding the impact of maternal nutrition on birth and infant outcomes.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Pneumonia
  • Maternal & Child Health
  • Pediatrics
  • Nutrition
  • Vaccines

Shruti Mehta, PhD, MPH

Professor and Vice Chair of Research and Administration Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

My work is centered on improving engagement in HIV and hepatitis C preventive and treatment services across India with a particular focus on key populations such as people who inject drugs. We do this through a combination of structural and individual-level interventions evaluated through novel.

Topics
  • Hepatitis
  • HIV
  • Substance Use

Barbara Migeon, Faculty of Genetic Medicine and Pediatrics

Professor Emerita of Genetic Medicine and Pediatrics Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Her genetics research has contributed immensely to our understanding of the developmental process of X inactivation in human females and its role in sex differences in disease. She is the author of more than 100 research articles and two books: one, about X Inactivation in human females, entitled Females are Mosaics, and the other about her research career, entitled, American Science: My view from the bench. She was the founding director of the Hopkins PhD program in Human Genetics and Molecular Biology.

Nilanjan Mitra, PhD

Associate Research Professor Whiting School of Engineering

Given the population of India and problems associated with drug delivery/vaccination using needles, would like to research upon and develop innovative drug delivery/vaccination process which does not use needles and can be delivered in mass with low cost.

Diwakar Mohan, MD, DrPH

Assistant Scientist Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

My expertise is in community based trials and evaluation of programs for evidence-based policy and practice. In recent years, I have played a strong role in supporting the monitoring and evaluation of digital health and community-based service delivery programs. This includes recent work in India on the trial to assess the efficacy of the Kilkari messaging program, which is the world's largest of its kind.

Topics
  • Digital Health
  • Program Evaluation

Caroline Moreau, MD, MPH, PhD

Associate Professor Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

My work in India working with colleagues at the Indian Institute of Health and Medical Research in Rajasthan through the PMA project, seeks to improve measurement of adolescent sexual and reproductive health and to evaluate the social factors related to levels in trends in ASRH in Rajasthan. I also seek to evaluate the impact of adolescent SRH programming in Rajasthan and identify for whom these interventions work.

Topics
  • Adolescent Health
  • Reproductive Health

William Moss, MD, MPH

Professor Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Our group has worked with the Indian Council of Medical Research, National Institute of Epidemiology, and National Institute of Virology to conduct measles and rubella serosurveys across India before and after measles and rubella mass vaccination campaigns. We are working with our partners to develop a sustainable integrated serosurveillance system to guide the Universal Immunisation Programme, identify immunity gaps, and assess disease burden.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Vaccines

Tolbert Nyenswah, BSc, LLB, MPH

Senior Research Associate Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

My work focus on the support to the COVID-19 response initiative during the peak of the India COVID-19 response. I contributed to public health emergency preparedness, and response and advising on Incident Management System. I supported the development of response tools and packages that helped provide needed technical and capacity building support for emergency operations and response system and IMS.

Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Emergency Preparedness

Vinciya Pandian, PhD, MBA, MSN, RN, ACNP-BC, FAANP, FAAN, FFNMRCSI

Assistant Dean and Associate Professor Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

Dr. Pandian is an alumnus from College of Nursing, Christian Medical College, Vellore, an institution that not only serves the local community but also the Southeast Asian Region. She serves on the board of directors for the Vellore Foundation that supports various activities within the Christian Medical College community, including education and research. While she is interested in improving the critical care, digital health, and mental health of the South Indian community, she is primarily focused on improving the education and wellness of both nurses and nursing students with limited resources.

Topics
  • Digital Health
  • Education
  • Critical Care
  • Mental Health

Chirag Parikh, MD, PhD

Professor Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

I work closely with APEX Nephrology Group in Mumbai and help them with their CKD research programs, setting up sample biorepository and planning their annual kidney conference.

Topics
  • Kidney Disease
  • Training

Kunal Parikh, PhD

Research Associate Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Whiting School of Engineering

Dr. Parikh leads the Global Institute for Vision Equity (GIVE), an initiative that partners with high volume, social-justice driven eye care systems across India to enable equity in eye care globally through development and translation of novel solutions addressing critical needs in ophthalmology and designed for the patients, care providers, and the context of care in under-resourced settings.

Topics
  • Digital Health
  • Eye Disease

Bryan Patenaude, MA, ScD

Assistant Professor Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

I have conducted a series of studies on measuring and comparing subnational and national inequalities in healthcare financing, out-of-pocket expenditure, access to care, and provision of healthcare services in India. Most recently, I have been working with the USAID-funded ACCELERATE project in support of India's National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS to assess the cost-effectiveness of key-populations HIV/AIDS test and treat programs in India and have recently begun working with the Johns Hopkins Maternal and Child Health Center India (MCHI) in West Bengal to measure and track over time changes in the multi-dimensional inequality in access to maternal and child health services, including immunization. My current work focused on creating new metrics to capture the multi-dimensional and intersectional nature of inequality and incorporate it, routinely, into impact and economic evaluations of healthcare interventions utilizes the fourth round of the National Family Health Survey in India as a case study application of the methodology.https://indiainstitute.jhu.edu/wp-admin/post.php?post=31&action=edit#

Topics
  • Business of Health
  • Economics
  • Health Systems

Nagpurnanand Prabhala, PhD

Professor of Finance and Francis J. Carey, Jr. Carey School of Business

Dr. Prabhala's work on India focuses on banks, financial intermediaries, and corporate finance in India. His prior and ongoing research includes work on credit scoring and its adoption by Indian banks, bank runs, the use of robo-advisors for wealth management, lowering frictions in consumer credit search, retail lending under fairness criteria, the impact of regulations and government programs such as laws to strengthening creditor rights, priority sector lending programs to aid small businesses, and PMJDY, a large-scale financial inclusion program.

Topics
  • Finance

Thomas Quinn, MD

Professor of Medicine Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Through collaborations with colleagues in Chennai, my lab is interested in seroprevalence and control of HIV/AIDS, HCV and other infectious viruses.

Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Hepatitis
  • HIV

Gurumurthy Ramachandran, PhD

Professor Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Dr. Gurumurthy Ramachandran is a Professor and Deputy Chair in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering in the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. He is also the Director of the Johns Hopkins Education and Research Center for Occupational Safety and Health funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. He has conducted research in various areas relating to human exposure assessment in occupational and non-occupational settings. His research has included the development of robust occupational exposure assessment strategies for a variety of airborne contaminants. He has pioneered the use of novel Bayesian statistical methods that synthesize exposure models, monitoring data, and probabilistic expert judgment. He has been at the forefront of research in occupational hygiene decision-making and developing mathematical methods for exposure modeling and analyzing occupational measurements. He has led or participated in multi-disciplinary teams engaged in numerous community and occupational exposure assessment and epidemiological studies in the US, India, and Canada. He is currently involved in a study of brick kiln workers in South Asia and indoor air quality in Bangladesh. These projects have involved advanced techniques for exposure reconstructions. He is also in close contact with educators and researchers from a number of institutes in India including the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (my alma mater). He has served as a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and advisory committees for the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). He is also serving on the editorial boards of the Annals of Work Exposures and Health, and the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene. He has a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, a Master's degree in Environmental Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the University of North Carolina.

Topics
  • Data Science
  • Non-Communicable Diseases
  • Community Health
  • Water & Sanitation

Pradeep Ramulu, MD, MHS, PhD

Sheila K. West Professor of Ophthalmology Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

I collaborate with colleagues in India such as those from the Aravind Eye Institute in India to develop better methods for identifying individuals at higher risk for future blindness (so that they may be caught and treated early). We have also run clinical trials to improve treatment algorithms for patients with routine and complex eye conditions.

Topics
  • Non-Communicable Diseases
  • Eye Disease

Krishna Rao, PhD, MSc

Associate Professor Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

My work focuses on primary health care and health systems - I am interested in examining different models of primary health care delivery that can provide comprehensive, affordable and affordable primary health care services to populations. I see health care financing as an important aspect of health systems reform and my work has focused on estimating financial hardship caused by out-of-pocket payments, and lost productivity.

Topics
  • Business of Health
  • Health Systems
  • Primary Healthcare

Rajini Rao, PhD

Professor and Graduate Program Director, Cellular & Molecular Medicine Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Creating a bidirectional pipeline for training in the basic biomedical sciences between India and USA, sharing best practices in PhD education including mentor training, rigor and reproducibility, career preparation, design and development of masters and doctoral level coursework in basic biomedical sciences.

Topics
  • Training

Alessandro Rebucci, PhD, MS

Associate Professor Carey School of Business

Alessandro Rebucci is an Associate Professor in Finance and Economics at the Carey Business School, holding a joint appointment with the Economics Department of the Krieger School of Art and Science. Prof. Rebucci is a NBER Faculty Research Fellow (International Finance and Macroeconomics Program), a CEPR Research Fellow (International Macroeconomics and Finance Programme), and a Research Fellow at the Center for Urban & Real Estate Management, Globalization of Real Estate Network (University of Zurich) and the Centre for Applied Financial Economics (University of Southern California). He is Associate Editor for the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, the Journal of Banking of Finance, the Journal of International Money and Finance, and Economia (the Journal of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association--LACEA). Prof. Rebucci had Visiting Scholar Positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the Central Bank of Finland, and the IMF Research Department. Before joining Carey, Prof. Rebucci held research and policy positions at the Inter-American Development Bank (2008-2013) and the International Monetary Fund (1998-2008). His research interests include international finance and banking, and more recently the study of the diffusion and impact of COVID-19.

Topics
  • Business
  • Economics
  • Finance
  • COVID-19

Nancy Reynolds, PhD

Professor and Associate Dean Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

Nancy R. Reynolds is a Professor and Associate Dean of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing; the Director of Center for Global Initiatives; Director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing Information, Knowledge Management; and Co-Secretary General, Global Network of the WHO Collaborating Centers of Nursing and Midwifery. She is a member of the board of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH). She is an NIH-funded researcher whose global health research in India has focused on development of interventions that use low-cost cellphone technology to bring health care services to vulnerable populations affected by HIV.

Topics
  • Digital Health
  • HIV
  • Mental Health

Samuel Robfogel, MBA, BA

Senior Director, International Initiatives Johns Hopkins University

Samuel Robfogel leads CTY's efforts to work with educators, foundations, government officials, corporations and individuals worldwide who share CTY's commitment to prepare the world’s brightest young people to be the leaders and innovators of the future.

Topics
  • Education

Matthew Robinson, MD

Assistant Professor Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

My work focuses on antibiotic stewardship, infection control, and detection to combat antimicrobial resistance India. We have been supported by the CDC to study Gram-negative bloodstream infection in several neonatal intensive care units in Pune and look forward to new opportunities to study antimicrobial resistance in larger networks. We have also studied how diagnosis of acute febrile illness impacts antibiotic use.

Topics
  • Data Science
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Antimicrobial Resistance

Kenneth Rose, PhD

Professor Emeritus of Functional Anatomy & Evolution Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Our paleontological field work in collaboration with Indian and Belgian paleontologists has uncovered the oldest Cenozoic vertebrate fossils from India. From open pit lignite mines in Gujarat, these fossils represent some of the oldest and most primitive radiations of modern mammals, including bats, primates, even- and odd-toed hoofed mammals, and rabbits. They highlight the pivotal role played by India in the diversification of placental mammals.

Topics
  • Paleontology

Bushra Sabri, PhD

Assistant Professor Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

I have worked on multiple research projects in India. In a small-scale study, I explored health and safety issues and the utility of the Danger Assessment (instrument designed to assess risk for future violence and homicides) among abused women in India. Using the Demographic Health Survey data, drawing from the risk factors from the Danger Assessment, I examined factors related to severe intimate partner violence and injuries among women in India. As part of my Center for AIDS Research International Award, I conducted a mixed methods study on violence and HIV risk issues among men and women who injected drugs in India. Most of my work has focused on the intersecting epidemics of exposures to violence, related health issues, coping and adaptation to traumatic life events, and trauma-informed interventions for at risk populations from diverse backgrounds.

Topics
  • Gender Based Violence

David Sack, MD

Professor Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Our group helps countries prevent cholera and other infectious diarrheal diseases through the development and the effective use of vaccine and improved water sanitation interventions. Inexpensive oral vaccines for cholera are now available but need to be targeted to be most cost effective. We are in the preclinical phase of promising vaccines for enterotoxigenic E coli and shigellosis and hope to start phase one studies soon.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Water & Sanitation

Prasanna Santhanam, MBBS, MD

Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

I am interested in metabolic diseases and molecular imaging and application of AI in endocrine disease. I have had collaborations with Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai.

Topics
  • Cancer
  • Diabetes

Mathuram Santosham, MD, MPH

Professor of Public Health Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Santosham studies International Health; Epidemiologic studies of enteric infections; improved oral rehydration therapy; field testing of vaccines; h. influenzae type b; pneumococcal; neonatal health; Zinc supplementation; rotavirus.

Topics
  • Pneumonia
  • Neonatology
  • Vaccines

Sridevi Sarma, PhD

Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Vice Dean for Graduate Education at the Whiting School of Engineering Whiting School of Engineering

Sridevi Sarma, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and vice dean for graduate education at the Whiting School of Engineering, develops computational, data-driven, and biological approaches to advance the knowledge and treatment of diseases of the nervous system including epilepsy, chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, and insomnia. She also harnesses dynamical systems and control theory to understand how the brain governs complex behaviors, including motor control and decision making.

Topics
  • Data Science
  • Engineering

Meike Schleiff, DrPH, MSPH

Assistant Scientist Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

My work focuses on capacity building in terms of development, implementation, and evaluation of courses and other training and fellowship programs. I also collaborate with partners to assess public health educational opportunities and contribute to the literature on best practices and opportunities for the future development of this field.

Topics
  • Primary Healthcare
  • Community Health
  • Training

Florin Selaru, MD

Director, Meyerhoff Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center Associate Professor of Medicine Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Gastroenterologist Florin Selaru has faculty appointments to the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology; the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center; and the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Institute of NanoBioTechnology at The Johns Hopkins University. He is a clinical expert in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and serves as the director of the Harvey M. and Lyn P. Meyerhoff Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Selaru earned his medical degree at Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest, Romania. He completed his internal medicine residency at University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore and completed his fellowship training in gastroenterology and hepatology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Topics
  • Medicine
  • Gastroenterology
  • Non-Communicable Diseases
  • Gastroenterology

Neal Shah, MD

Assistant Professor Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

I'm interested in understanding human factors influencing human bacterial microbiome (bacterial genes within us) influencing human health. My research focuses on blood microbiome (bacterial DNA in blood) and its relationship to chronic diseases, special focus on kidney diseases. Studies show that diverse and balanced bacterial community promotes health while loss of diversity and imbalanced community associates with diseases. I am interested in Indian and western microbiome comparisons.

Topics
  • Microbiomics
  • Medicine
  • Kidney Disease

Anita Shet, MD, PhD

Director of Child Health, International Vaccine Access Center Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Anita Shet is a pediatrician and a public health specialist and director of the Johns Hopkins Maternal and Child Health India program that focuses on addressing health issues among women, infants and children, and strengthening public health capacity in India. Her interests span maternal and child nutrition, pediatric and adolescent HIV, dengue infections, social determinants of health, childhood immunization and vaccine-preventable diseases. Her practice areas include addressing pandemic-related disruptions of routine childhood vaccination and essential health services, and advocacy efforts to expand vaccine access in India and globally. At present, she also focuses on empowering disadvantaged children and youth to live with good health and dignity.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • HIV
  • Pneumonia
  • Maternal & Child Health
  • Pediatrics
  • Public Health

Emilia Simeonova, PhD

Professor Carey School of Business

Dr Simeonova is an applied economist who works at the intersection of health and behavioral economics. She has a special interest in children's development and the impact of policies on long-term health and economic outcomes of children. Dr. Simeonova has done research on the determinants of adherence with medication and the effects of COVID-19 on communities.

Topics
  • Business of Health
  • Digital Health
  • Economics

Vikesh Singh, MD, MSc

Professor of Medicine; Director of Pancreatology; Director of Endoscopy Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

I have primarily lectured on topics primarily in pancreaticobiliary disease and/or performed live endoscopy demonstrations at gastroenterology conferences in India since 2011. I have also taken part in hospital ward rounds with medical students, residents and fellows. I have also been the PI of a randomized controlled trial on post-ERCP pancreatitis prophylaxis which had 3 participating centers in India. This was published in 2019 and represents one of the largest prophylaxis trials ever conducted. We are about to start another such trial in 2022.

Topics
  • Medicine
  • Gastroenterology

Richard Smith, PhD

Vice Dean of Education and Partnerships, Professor of Practice Carey School of Business

I am a research fellow at ISB. Human Capital Development. Retention in India; Book Chapters on Talent Management in India; Leadership in India; Monthly column in the India HR publication, People Matters.

Topics
  • Business

Anthony So, MD, MPA

Professor of the Practice Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Rick Smith is the vice dean for education and partnerships as well as a professor of practice. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins University, he served as the deputy dean of education programs at Singapore Management University, where he was also a professor of strategic management. Prior to joining academia on a full-time basis, Rick spent more than 30 years in business, primarily in the consulting industry as a senior partner with Accenture, where he held a variety of leadership roles across industries, geographies, and services. During his business career, Rick has had the opportunity to live and work in Asia, Europe, and America with more than 15 years in the growth markets of China, Singapore, India, and Indonesia. In addition to his work with global firms, he also served as the CEO of a start-up in China and has supported several entrepreneurial ventures. Underpinning Rick’s research and teaching interests is the focus on human capital as a strategic resource for competitive advantage. He teaches graduate courses on Strategic Management and Human Capital Leadership. As a frequent guest speaker and executive education instructor Rick is the proud recipient numerous teaching awards. Rick’s work on cross-border leadership provided significant media attention in Asia where he was featured as guest on CNBC’s ‘Squawk box’ and ‘Talk Asia.’ Recently, he turned his attention to management education and co-authored the book, Rethinking the Business Models of Business Schools.

Sunil Solomon, MBBS, PhD, MPH

Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Solomon's work focuses on HIV, viral hepatitis and other infectious diseases across India. He currently has operations in almost 20 Indian states and partners with national and state governments as well as community-based organizations.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Hepatitis
  • HIV

Savyasachi Thakkar, MD

Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Adult Reconstruction Surgeon Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

As an Indian born, US trained adult hip & knee reconstruction surgeon, I have the unique privilege of sharing orthopedic knowledge and skills with my peers in India. My work is focussed on advances in digital health, robotic-assisted surgery, optimizing patient outcomes and surgical techniques surrounding complex joint reconstructions. I also provide fellowship opportunities for international applicants to visit Johns Hopkins.

Topics
  • Digital Health

Nitish Thakor, PhD

Professor of Biomedical Engineering Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Whiting School of Engineering

Dr. Nitish Thakor is a professor of biomedical engineering and neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He also has an appointment in the Johns Hopkins Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He conducts research in the fields of Biomedical Instrumentation, Neuroengineering, Neurprosthesis, and Brain-Machine Interface. Dr. Thakor directs the Laboratory for Neuroengineering and is also the director of the NIH Training Grant on Neuroengineering. Presently he is also a co-director of the Carnegie Center at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Previously, for 10 years he founded and led an Institute, SINAPSE, focused on neurotechnologies, at the National University of Singapore. He is actively engaged in developing international scientific programs, collaborative exchanges, tutorials, and conferences in the field of biomedical and Neuroengineering. Dr. Thakor teaches Principles of Design of Medical Instrumentation and Rehabilitation Engineering courses and directs laboratories both in engineering school and the medical school engaged in many sensors, devices, and technologies through design, development, and experimentation, as well as clinical translation. For more than a decade Dr. Thakor collaborated and contributed to a project on “Revolutionizing Prosthesis, in collaboration with a multi-university consortium funded by DARPA. They developed the next-generation neurally controlled upper limb prosthesis. Presently, his team is developing both noninvasive and invasive neural and muscle interfaces, novel human-centered prostheses, sensors, and machine intelligence in the neuroprosthesis system. He received his undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, in Bombay, India. He earned both a M.S. in biomedical engineering and a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After 2 years as a faculty at Northwestern University, Dr. Thakor joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1983. Dr. Thakor is a co-author of more than 450 refereed journal papers, 20 patents, author of a comprehensive 4 volume Handbook of Neuroengineering. He has previously served as the editor-in-chief of Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing and IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. In addition, Dr. Thakor is a recipient of a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health and a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, IEEE, Founding Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, and Fellow of International Federation of Medical and Biological Engineering. He has been elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

Topics
  • Engineering

Chloe Thio, MD

Professor of Medicine Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

My laboratory focuses on chronic hepatitis B and HIV-hepatitis B co-infection including translational research aimed at curing hepatitis B. I also have active research projects involving hepatitis C and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Hepatitis
  • HIV

David Thomas, MD, MPH

Professor of Medicine Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Thomas' research interests are in hepatitis viruses - their epidemiology and pathogenesis as well as our elimination efforts. He also has a long-standing interest in capacity development around research and training in infectious diseases.

Topics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • COVID-19
  • Hepatitis

Jeffrey Tornheim, MD, MPH

Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Jeffrey A Tornheim, MD, MPH is an Assistant Professor in the Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Pediatric Hospital Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He received his medical degree from the Mount Sinai University School of Medicine, completed a combined residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Yale New Haven Hospital and a clinical fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. His research combines cohort epidemiology and diagnostic tools to personalize therapy for drug-resistant tuberculosis. His projects have applied combinations of clinical data with expanded phenotypic drug susceptibility testing, minimum inhibitory concentration testing, next generation sequencing of both the Mycobacterial genome and the human transcriptome, therapeutic drug monitoring, and novel biomarker assessments to improve treatment outcomes for drug resistant tuberculosis.

Topics
  • Genomics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Tuberculosis
  • Pediatrics

Johannes Urpelainen, PhD

Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Professor of Energy, Resources and Environment School of Advanced International Studies

India plays a central role in global energy markets and climate policy. My work focuses on finding sustainable solutions to meeting India's energy needs. Recent work has studied renewable energy integration in the Indian power system, alternative livelihoods for coal mining communities, and strategies to gradually phase out coal.

Topics
  • Energy
  • Environment & Climate
  • Policy
  • Political Sciences

Bharath Venkatesh, PhD

Assistant Professor of Radiology Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Bharath Ambale-Venkatesh has been fascinated by the use of imaging to probe the human body ever since he read about the discovery of functional MRI in the early 90s while still in middle school. He earned his BS from BMS College of Engineering, India, in 2004 and PhD from Auburn University, Alabama, in 2010, with his dissertation focused on understanding myocardial mechanics from cardiac MRI. Bharath then moved to Johns Hopkins University to diversify his research portfolio. Now a faculty member in the department of Radiology, he continues research in cardiovascular imaging, epidemiology, and data science.

Topics
  • Medicine

Brian Wahl, PhD, MPH

Assistant Scientist Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

I am an infectious disease epidemiologist with an interest in the changing epidemiology of vaccine-preventable respiratory diseases in children. I lead field studies and employ mathematical modelling to address critical questions related to vaccine program performance, optimization, and equity. I have also led several public health training and capacity development efforts with several partner organizations. I have been based in South Asia for more than a decade where I collaborate with researchers from leading institutions in the region.

Topics
  • Public Health
  • International Health
  • Vaccines

Kevin Welding, PhD

Assistant Scientist Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

I am an economist that conducts tobacco control research to inform fiscal and health policy change. Recent work in India has included evidence of illegal smokeless tobacco, health warning label compliance, the market for different tobacco products, and the supply chain for illegal e-cigarettes.

Topics
  • Basic Science
  • Economics
  • Policy
  • Substance Use

Joshua White, PhD

Professor of Practice of International Affairs School of Advanced International Studies

Joshua T. White is Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins SAIS, and serves as the inaugural director of the U.S.-ASEAN and U.S.-Pacific Institutes for Rising Leaders. He is also a Nonresident Fellow in the Foreign Policy program at The Brookings Institution. He previously served at the White House as Senior Advisor & Director for South Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, where he staffed the President and National Security Advisor on the full range of South Asia policy issues pertaining to India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Indian subcontinent, and led efforts to integrate U.S. government policy planning across South and East Asia. Prior to joining the White House, Dr. White was a Senior Associate and Co-Director of the South Asia program at The Stimson Center and, previously, Senior Advisor for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, a position he held in conjunction with an International Affairs Fellowship from the Council on Foreign Relations. While at the Pentagon he supported Deputy Secretary of Defense Ash Carter in advancing the U.S.-India Defense Technology and Trade Initiative, and advised on a broad set of defense issues related to the department’s rebalance to the Asia-Pacific. He graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Williams College with a double major in history and mathematics, and received his PhD with distinction from Johns Hopkins SAIS.

Topics
  • International Relations

Peter Winch, MD MPH

Professor Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Water and sanitation, environmental sustainability, qualitative research, formative research.

Topics
  • International Health