Subhash Chandra Parija, MBBS, MD, PhD, DSc, FRCPath, was the Vice-Chancellor of Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth, a deemed-to-be university, Pondicherry, India, and is the Former Director of the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Pondicherry, India. With nearly 45 years of teaching and research experience in the field of medical microbiology, he is a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) expert and has been consulted to draft guidelines on preventing foodborne parasites. He was on the MD examination boards at Colombo University, Sri Lanka; Sultan Qaboos University, Oman; and the University of Malaya, Malaysia. He received a DSc from Madras University for his contributions to the field of medical parasitology. He holds 1 granted patent, 1 published patent, 23 copyrights, and 1 technology transfer. He has authored or edited 19 books, including the most popular Textbook of Medical Microbiology &Immunology, Effective Medical Communication: The A, B, C, D, E of It, Textbook of Parasitic Zoonoses, and Textbook of Fungal Zoonoses and Sapronoses, all published by Springer. He has published more than 450 papers in reputable national and international journals. He has been honoured with more than 29 awards including the Medical Council of India's Dr. B.C. Roy National Award and the National Academy of Medical Sciences' Dr. P.N. Chuttani Oration Award. He founded the Indian Academy of Tropical Parasitology (IATP), the only professional organisation of medical parasitologists in India.
Abhijit Poddar, PhD, is an experienced policy expert and biotechnologist with over 15 years of experience promoting regulatory reforms in India and fostering South-South and North-South collaboration in health security. He currently serves as an Associate Professor at the MGM Advanced Research Institute, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University), Pondicherry, India. In his current academic role, he has demonstrated significant leadership in institution building. He played a key role in establishing the MGM Advanced Research Institute, a Centre for Bio-Policy Research, a Virus Research and Diagnostic Lab (VRDL), and a Zebrafish facility for preclinical studies. His research interests are diverse, bridging applied wet-lab science with public policy. They include microbial biotechnology, the use of Zebrafish as a preclinical model, and a strong focus on the 'One Health' framework, covering biosecurity, pandemic preparedness, and the governance of emerging technologies relevant to zoonotic disease control. He has supervised PhD and MSc students and played a key role in designing innovative, future-ready courses in Biosecurity, Bio-entrepreneurship, and One Health, pioneering pedagogical methods such as tabletop exercises. He has published extensively, with more than 30 research articles in peer-reviewed journals, including IJSEM, Lancet Global Health, Nature Pediatric Research, and Health Security; holds two Indian patents; and has contributed to numerous national policy documents.
