Dr. S. Sankar works as Professor and Head at the Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Sri Ramachandra Faculty of Public Health, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (SRIHER). He has done post-graduation in Environmental Toxicology from the University of Madras and completed PhD in Environmental Health from SRIHER. He works with a dynamic and multi-disciplinary team at a place that serves as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health and Centre for Advanced Research in Air Quality, Climate and Health for the Indian Council of Medical Research, Govt. of India, for the past 25 years. As a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, he acquired training in courses such as exposure assessment, environmental epidemiology, global burden of disease, toxicology, molecular and genetic epidemiology, disease outbreak, and industrial hygiene and short-term courses such as Industrial Ventilation, Lockout Tag Out, and Personal Protective Equipment. Through this capacity building, he had a significant role in developing the curriculum and introducing new specializations for the Master of Public Health (Occupational and Environmental Health, Public Health Nutrition, Health Systems Management, Climate Change, and Human Health) and innovative programs such as BSc. (Hons) Environmental Health Sciences at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research. He has been involved in introducing the curriculum on Environmental Sciences courses for all paramedical undergraduate programs, which is mandatory as part of the UGC regulation. He teaches toxicology, exposure assessment, industrial hygiene, air quality assessment, environmental impact and health risk assessment, and environmental health courses. He was an approved tutor/trainer by the British Occupational Health Society and the National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH) UK for nearly six years.
He served the World Health Organization in various capacities as a consultant, temporary advisor, and technical expert on special assignments concerning occupational and environmental health training and health risk assessment activities in several countries such as Ethiopia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. He has been involved in setting up a state-of-the-art Industrial Hygiene and exposure assessment laboratory at the department and has undertaken over 50 industrial hygiene projects assessing employees’ exposures to noise, chemicals, dust, illumination, and heat stress in various types of industry sectors across India.
Over the last 25 years of his service at SRIHER, he was involved in conducting over 50 short-term training programs concerning occupational and environmental health in India, especially for industry health & safety professionals and researchers. He has designed and conducted numerous large-scale exposure assessment studies and was also responsible for the selection, validation, and deployment of a wide range of air sampling equipment in the field. He was involved as Principal Co-Investigator in the first environmental health cohort study in India examining exposure-response relationships between particulate matter exposures and health effects among pregnant women, infants, and adults in Tamil Nadu, funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research, Govt. of India through the ICMR Centre for Advanced Research grant. He has also been involved in developing and standardizing field protocols for sampling air pollutants, analysis of air toxics and biomarkers, and field evaluation of cost-effective particulate matter and Carbon monoxide monitoring sensors. He has been involved in a large-scale cohort that examined exposure-response relationships between particulate matter exposures and health effects among pregnant women, infants, and adults in a multi-country LPG intervention trial funded by NIH, USA in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In various capacities as Co-Investigator, Principal Co-Investigator, and Principal Investigator, he has been involved in conducting more than 40 interdisciplinary research projects funded by national and international agencies. He has more than 60 research publications to his credit. Presently, he serves as a reviewer for more than ten national and international journals.
He had successfully served as a member of the State Expert Appraisal Committee, Department of Environment, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Govt. of India. As an expert committee member, he was also involved in special assignments of the National Green Tribunal and Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. He has initiated efforts to strengthen the green initiatives and energy conservation at SRIHER. He has taken an active role in several Institutes’ administration, academics, and hospital committees concerning quality and safety.
Funding Agency: Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India.
Capacity: Principal Investigator
Collaborators: Indian Institute of Tropical Medicine
Funding agency: Vital Strategies, India
Capacity: Scientific Advisor
Collaborators: Vital Strategies, India, Pure Earth
Funding Agency: National Institute of Health, USA.
Capacity: C0-Investigator
Collaborators: Emory University, Johns Hopkins University, Colorado State University
Funding Agency: Implementation Science Network, National Institutes of Health, USA.
Capacity: Co-Investigator
Collaborators: University of Emory and University of Pennsylvania
Funding Agency: Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change
Capacity: Principal Investigator
Collaborators: Tamilnadu Pollution Control Board, Department of vital statistics of Chennai Corporation, Indian Meteorological Department, Pune
Funding Agency: Department of Biotechnology & National Environmental Research Council (UK).
Capacity: C0-Investigator
Collaborators: University of Edinburg-UK, IIT-New Delhi, IIT-Kanpur, AIIMS-New Delhi, INCLEN-New Delhi, UCMS, New Delhi
Funding Agency: National Institute of Health, USA.
Capacity: C0-Investigator
Collaborators: University of California, Berkeley and KEMHRC Pune
Funding Agency: Global Alliance for Clean Cook Stoves, UN Foundation, Public Health Institute, CDC, USA
Capacity: Co-Investigator
Funding Agency: National Institute of Health, USA and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Capacity: C0-Principal Investigator (Exposure Core)
Collaborators: Emory University, Johns Hopkins University, Colorado state University
Funding Agency: The World Health Organization (SEARO)
Capacity: Principal Investigator
Collaborator: WHO Regional Office, Bhutan
Funding Agency: The World Health Organization (SEARO)
Capacity: Principal Investigator
Collaborator: WHO Regional Office, Bhutan
Funding Agency: European Union Council
Capacity: Principal Investigator
Collaborators: Public Health Foundation of India, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Funding Agency: Tufts University
Capacity: Co-Investigator
Collaborators: Department of Cardiology, SRIHER and Tufts University
Funding Agency: National Institute of Health, USA and UKIERI, UK
Capacity: Co-Investigator
Collaborators: Utah State University and University of Dundee
Funding Agency: The World Health Organization (SEARO)
Capacity: Principal Investigator
Collaborator: Royal Institute of Health Sciences, Bhutan
Funding Agency: The World Health Organization (SEARO)
Capacity: Principal Investigator
Collaborator: WHO Regional Office, Nepal
Funding Agency: Indian Council of Medical Research
Capacity: Co-Principal Investigator
Funding Agency: The World Bank
Capacity: Principal Investigator
Collaborators: University of California Berkeley, Columbia University, and INCLEN Trust, India
Funding Agency: The World Health Organization (SEARO)
Capacity: Co-Investigator
Collaborator: WHO Regional Office, Maldives
Funding Agency: The United Nations Environment Program
Capacity: Co-Investigator
Collaborator: Berkeley Air Monitoring, California, USA
Funding Agency: The Shell Foundation
Capacity: Co-Investigator
Collaborator: Berkeley Air Monitoring, California, USA
Funding Agency: The World Health Organization (SEARO)
Capacity: Co-Investigator
Funding Agency: GTZ-India
Capacity: Co-Investigator
Collaborators: GTZ-Proklima-Ozone Cell (MOEFCC), Govt. of India
Funding Agency: The World Health Organization (SEARO)
Capacity: Co-Investigator
Funding Agency: The European Commission, Belgium
Capacity: Co-Investigator
Collaborator: GTZ, Germany
Funding Agency: IDRC, Canada
Capacity: Co-Investigator
Collaborator: Development Alternatives, New Delhi
Funding Agency: The Health Effects Institute, Boston, USA.
Capacity: Co-Investigator
Collaborator: TERI, New Delhi, India
Funding Agency: National Institutes of Health, USA, under a sub-contract to The National Council of Applied Economic Research, Govt. Of India
Capacity: Co-Investigator
Collaborator: University of Maryland
Funding Agency: Central Pollution Control Board, Govt. Of India
Capacity: Co-Investigator
Collaborator: Corporation of Chennai
Funding Agency: National Institutes of Health, USA
Capacity: Co-Investigator
Collaborator: Harvard University
Funding Agency: The World Health Organisation through MOEFCC, Govt. of India
Capacity: Co-Investigator
Funding Agency: The ESMAP Unit, The World Bank
Capacity: Co-Investigator
Collaborators: The University of California, Berkeley, USA, and Institute of Health Systems, Hyderabad, India
Funding Agency: Tamil Nadu State Pollution Control Board, Chennai
Capacity: Co-Investigator
Collaborator: Tamil Nadu State Pollution Control Board, Chennai
Funding Agency: The United Nations Development Program, Under sub-contract with the Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research
Capacity: Field Coordinator
Collaborator: The Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research, Mumbai
Funding Agency: The World Bank
Capacity: Field Coordinator
Collaborators: IGIDR, Mumbai, MSE – Chennai, India, MIDS – Chennai, India
Funding Agency: The UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization)
Capacity: Field Coordinator
Collaborator: Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai, India
Funding Agency: United Nations Centre for Human Settlements
Capacity: Field Coordinator
Indoor Air Quality Monitoring In Rural Households of Tamil Nadu, India. International Conference on Environmental And Occupational Respiratory Diseases, 29 Oct – 2 Nov, 2000.
Job-Exposure-Health profile for workers n textile units of Tamil Nadu, India: A preliminary report, Golden Jubilee Conference on Occupational Health & 50th Annual Convention, Indian Association of Occupational Health, Mumbai Branch, Mumbai April 19-21, 2002.
Visited the University of California, Berkeley at the School of Public Health, as a Visiting Scholar hosted by the Department of Environmental Health Sciences for training in the field of Toxicology, Exposure Assessment, and Molecular Epidemiology, from 27.07.2002 to 20.12.2002
Visited the University of California, Berkeley at the School of Public Health, as a Visiting Scholar hosted by the Department of Environmental Health Sciences for training in the field of Environmental Epidemiology, and Industrial Hygiene from 18.01.2005 to 14.06.2005
Completion of 10 years of service at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, 2011.
Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, 2017.
Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, 2018.
Completion of 20 years of service at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, 2019.
Scientific Committee of 3rd Euro-Mediterranean Conference for Environmental Integration (EMCEI), June 2021
Committee on Research Strategy on Environmental Health Issues and Air Pollution for Better Management of Covid, Indian Council of Medical Research, 2021
Site Inspection, Hon’ble National Green Tribunal, South Zone, 2021
State Expert Appraisal Committee, Department of Environment, Govt. of Tamil Nadu from 5th November 2018 to 4th November 2021.
For Best Research Publication in the Faculty of Public Health, 2021
For Best Research Publication in the Faculty of Public Health, 2022
Committee to discuss and identify “Relevant thematic areas for Operational Health Research in Tamil Nadu”, constituted by The Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University, 20.07.2023.
District Level, Green Champion Award Committee, constituted by The District Collector, Chennai, April 2022 and April 2023.
Part of the inspection team of State Expert Appraisal Committee for over 20 environmental clearance projects
Committee constituted by Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board for Evaluation of Effluent water to recommend re-categorization- Tamil Nadu Rice mill Owners & Paddy Rice Dealers Association, 2017.
Roundtable discussion on Strategies to address health impacts of Air pollution, World Health Organization, New Delhi, June 2017
Oil Spill Compensation, meeting organized by Tamil Nadu State Disaster Management Agency, February 2017
Roundtable discussion on Strategies to address health impacts of Air pollution, organized by the World Health Organization, New Delhi, June 2017
Accident investigation committee, Shasun Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, Kudikadu, nominated by Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, December 2015
Accident investigation committee, JSW Steel Limited, Salem, nominated by Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, September 2015
Round table panel discussion on “Climate Change”, U.S. Consul General Phillip Min, Chennai, September 2015
Discussion session on “Recent WHO guidelines for air quality standards implementation challenges in developing countries” at the Indian International Conference on Air Quality Management (IICAQM 2021): Measurement, Modelling, Health Risk and Public Policy,IIT Madras, 16th December, 2021
Joint Working Group on Environmental and Occupational Health and Injury Prevention and Control held on 22nd June 2018 at Indian Council of Medical Research Headquarters, New Delhi.
District Level, Green Champion Award Committee, constituted by the District Collector, Chennai, 2024.
District Level, Green Champion Award Committee, constituted by the District Collector, Chennai, 16 May 2025.
1998 to Present, in Indian Association of Occupational Health
2000 to present in Environmental Mutagenesis Society of India
2002 to present in National Safety Council of India, Tamil Nadu Chapter
International Society of Exposure Science