Swaminathan Soumya

Swaminathan is a pediatrician and a globally recognized expert in tuberculosis and HIV research, who recently served as the first chief scientist of the World Health Organization. Previously she served as director-general of the Indian Council of Medical Research, and secretary of the Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India (2015–2017). She is the principal advisor to the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme and serves as the national science chair of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation, Government of India. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society, National Academy of Medicine (USA) and Academy of Medical Sciences, UK. She has been awarded honorary doctorates by the Karolinska Institutet (Sweden), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, McGill University, and the University of Guelph, Canada. She co-chairs the global commission Our Common Air and serves on the boards of the National University of Singapore, Alliance Bioversity International. Her current research interests focus on the health impacts of climate change and the delivery of comprehensive primary health care.