Roll of honour: Gagandeep Kang makes it to US National Academy of Medicine

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, October 10

Four years after she made history by becoming the first Indian woman to be elected Fellow of the Royal Society, Gagandeep Kang has now become an international member of the coveted US National Academy of Medicine (NAM). This makes her the third Indian expert after former WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan and acclaimed cardiologist K Srinath Reddy to get the honour.

Researcher behind rotavirus vax

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Kang has been one of the foremost leaders in the development of the indigenous rotavirus vaccine. The vaccine is saving children from diarrhoeal diseases every year. India loses 1.5 lakh children under five to diarrhoea annually

Kang, a leading vaccinologist and currently gastroenterological sciences professor at Christian Medical College, Vellore, was formally inducted as NAM member at the institution’s annual meeting in Washington on Monday. She is among only 10 international members to be elected to NAM from the world over this time. The NAM membership is lifelong. The newly elected members bring NAM’s total membership to 2,400, which includes 198 international members.

Introducing Kang, Academy President Victor Dzau said, “As a NAM member, you are part of a group of truly distinguished individuals who have made important contributions to health, medicine and science.” Shimla-born Kang, who has family roots in Punjab’s Samrala and Jalandhar, joins NAM at a dynamic stage in the organisation’s history. Since 1970, when the Institute of Medicine was established as part of the congressionally chartered National Academy of Sciences in the US, the organisation’s work and recommendations have shaped health research, practice and policies worldwide.

“Now at NAM, our capacity to influence the future of medicine and health has never been greater,” Dzau said, introducing Kang upon her election as the Academy’s international member.

The organisation plays a major role in shaping global health policy by working across disciplines and sparking innovative approaches to advance knowledge and accelerate progress in science, medicine, policy and health equity.

Kang has been one of the foremost leaders in the development of the indigenous rotavirus vaccine. The vaccine is saving children from diarrhoeal diseases every year. India loses 1.5 lakh children under five to diarrhoea annually. Of these, 50 per cent deaths are due to rotavirus.

Kang is also renowned for her inter-disciplinary research studying the transmission, development and prevention of enteric infections and their sequelae in children in India.

Previously she was Executive Director at the Faridabad-based Translational Health Science and Technology Institute and played a role in shaping India’s Covid 19 vaccine strategy. She created a stir by resigning from the institute and returning to CMC-Vellore close on the heels of the ICMR announcing that India’s first indigenous Covid vaccine would be launched by August 15, 2020.