Office of Dean Research

Professor Kalpana Balakrishnan is a globally acclaimed researcher in the areas of occupational and environmental health. She acquired her undergraduate education at the AIIMS, New Delhi, India and subsequently her doctoral and post-doctoral training at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, USA. She has served SRIHER for nearly 3 decades, spearheading the creation of several centers of research excellence including, the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Occupational and Environmental Health and the ICMR Centre for Advanced Research on Air Quality, Climate and Health. She is currently engaged in research and training collaborations with a network of more than 50 national and international institutional partners to address national and global health research priorities. She is a distinguished fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences

Dr. Balakrishnan has contributed as an technical expert for many international reports including The World Health Organisation Air Quality Guidelines, The IARC Monographs and The Global Energy Assessment, to name a few.  She also serves in multiple national and global technical review committees for addressing Climate, Health and Energy risks in developing countries. She is a highly cited researcher and has been consistently ranked among the top 2% of scientists in the field of General and Internal Medicine in an independent study conducted by Stanford University. She is a recipient of the Clarivate India Research Excellence Citation award (2021) and The Hari Om Ashram Trust Award (2000) for Outstanding Scientist administered by the University Grants Commission, Govt. of India. As Dean (Research) she is currently focused on scaling research capacities at the university to enable SRIHER’s designation as an Institute of Eminence within the next 5 years. 

Dr. Balakrishnan’s CV and profile can be downloaded here (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5905-1801)

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Dr. Venkatachalam received his under-graduate and doctoral degrees from University of Madras and received specialized training in high LET radiation biology from New Jersey Medical School, USA. He currently heads the department of Human Genetics. His research interests are focused on (i) chromosome aberrations and mutations in the human genome in relation to radiation biodosimetry (ii) non-DNA targeted effects of ionizing radiation (iii) low-dose medical radiation exposure and (iv) developing new markers for clinical genetic diagnosis. He has been instrumental in SRIHER meriting the accreditation of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board of India (AERB), where he spearheads numerous efforts directed at management of population level radiation emergencies. He is a recipient of multiple grants from AERB, Defence Research Development Organization (DRDO) and Department of Science and Technology (DST) to establish a world class radiation biodosimetry facility at SRIHER. He is a recipient of the prestigious Doctor of Science degree awarded by SRIHER for his exemplary contributions to the field of radiation biology. 

Dr. Venkatachalam’s CV and profile can be downloaded here (https://orcid.org//0000-0003-2152-2003)

Dr.Sridevi Padmanabhan acquired her undre-graduate degree from Manipal and Masters degree from Govt. Dental College, Chennai. She is a Professor in the Department of Orthodontics  and Dentofacial Orthopedics and was the head of the department from 2014 to 2019.

She has served as the editor of the Journal of Indian Orthodontic Society and currently serves as editor of the Sri Ramachandra Journal of Health Sciences and assistant editor of APOS trends, the journal of the Asian Pacific Orthodontic Society.

 She has won several awards for academic excellence such as the Colgate Palmolive  award, International college of Dentists Award and the TMA Pai Gold medal for academic excellence.More recently ,she was the the recipient of the Best reviewers award for 2020 by the Asian Pacific Orthodontic Society and  the Dr.A.V.Arun outstanding Professor award conferred  by the Indian Orthodontic Society in the year 2023. She has also served as the Hon. Secretary of the Indian Orthodontic society from 2018 to 2022 and currently serves as Council Member, World Federation of Orthodontists.

She has several publications to her credit including a text book chapter in Om P Kharabanda .Textbook of Orthodontics ,3^rd Edition. Elsevier .India

Her area of research interest includes white spot lesions, nanotechnology, airway growth modification and clinical outcomes.

Dr. Sridevi Padmanabhan’s CV and profile can be downloaded here:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0322-4136.

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Dr. Pankaj B. Shah has done MBBS from Seth GS Medical College, KEM Hospital, Mumbai and Post graduation in MD Community Medicine from LTMMC, LTMGH, Mumbai under Mumbai University. He acquired PhD from SRIHER, Chennai. His interest is medical education, public health research and policy, epidemiology, preventive oncology, ethical use of AI in education, health care and Research.  He is member of various esteem international and national platforms.  He has good experience with systematic reviews with Cochrane, SPARC Govt of India funding and WHO grants.

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Vidya Ramkumar, Ph.D, is a Professor and an India Alliance fellow in Clinical and Public Health, at the Faculty of Audiology and Speech, Language Pathology at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (DU), Chennai. She is also a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Professional Research fellow (2014). 

She has spent the last 15 years working on developing service delivery models using e-and mhealth tools to bridge gaps in hearing health care services in the underserved regions. She established the SRESHT lab in 2020 (Services To Reach Children With Speech & Hearing Disorders Using Telepractice see SRESHT-SRIHER-IA Lab)  to pursue implementation research in rural community-based models with tele-practice applications for early identification and rehabilitation of childhood developmental disabilities (particular emphasis on hearing loss). She works in collaboration with the state Governments towards implementation of these services. She conducts training programs routinely for nurses and grass root workers within health and social systems towards early identification of hearing loss and developmental disabilities and also assesses public-funded programs for outcomes in her state. She has had several major and minor grants to support her work in the last 15 years. 

She is a member of the World Rehabilitation Alliance- Work stream Task force since 2023. She is the Indian representative at the International Society of Audiology and member of the Audiology committee at the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (d/b/a IALP). She is also an expert member of the Tamil Nadu’s. She is also an expert member on the RIGHTS: Inclusion, Accessibility and Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities in Tamil Nadu

Project

See TN Rights projects.worldbank.org 

She is further involved in development of affordable indigenous testing tools that can support early identification and rehabilitation of children with developmental and hearing disabilities. She currently supports incubation in assistive technologies for persons with disabilities across life span. 

Her work is supported by a passionate team of collaborators from various disciplines, research scholars, doctoral students, student volunteers, field workers.  She and her team have published several papers in national international journals in her area of expertise, including those with policy implications.