I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the School of Medicine, Emory University, USA. I hold medical degrees (MBBS and DFM) with a PhD in Epidemiology (diabetes focus) and a Master’s Degree in Public Health. My major research interests focus on the epidemiology of type 2 diabetes and its prevention by developing novel interventions and to translate the research evidence into clinical and public health practice. After my medical degree in India, I graduated with an MPH (University 1st rank holder) from India’s first public health school and Centre of Excellence for Public Health, the Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies. My MPH thesis examined the longitudinal change in risk factors for non-communicable diseases over seven years in Kerala, India, resulting in six scientific articles. After MPH, I was selected as a Research Trainee in the US-NIH funded ASCEND (Asian Collaboration for Excellence in Non-Communicable Disease) program. Through this research capacity-building program, I expanded my collaboration with early- and mid-career researchers working on NCDs in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and China. This program recognized my academic achievements with an “Award of Excellence”. My PhD was from one of the top-ranking universities globally, the University of Melbourne in Australia. My PhD thesis was part of a large community-based lifestyle-related diabetes prevention trial in India, funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), called the Kerala Diabetes Prevention Program (K-DPP). So far, to my credit, I have authored 105 scientific research articles (first, corresponding, or senior author of 48 articles), including in very high impact factor (IF) journals such as The Lancet (IF: 202.7), Nature Medicine (IF: 87.2), Nature (IF: 69.5), Nature Reviews Endocrinology (IF: 47.6), The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology (IF: 44.9), The Lancet Global Health (IF: 38.9), and Diabetes Care (IF: 17.2). To date, my research papers have received more than 29,500 citations, and my Google Scholar h-index is 35 and i10-index is 62. Further, I have so far received ~US$2.9 million as a named investigator on eight grants in relation to the prevention and treatment of diabetes and hypertention, and tobacco use. I have ongoing collaborations with colleagues from India, Australia, the UK, Canada, the USA, Singapore, and Finland on projects related to diabetes and other non-communicable diseases. These research partners are experts in chronic disease epidemiology, clinical science, behavioral and implementation science, health economics, and biostatistics. I have been conferred with several scholarships, awards, and travel grants. I serve on the review committee of major public funding organizations such as the Canadian CIHR and UK’s NIHR, the editorial board of journals, and as a reviewer for journals, PhD and MD thesis. I am also an active member of several professional diabetes organizations. Of note, I am an active researcher in the field of COVID-19 and new-onset diabetes and have published, so far, 18 articles as the lead or senior author receiving nearly 450 citations. Finally, I am a Co-Investigator on a global COVID-19 registry (https://covidiab.e-dendrite.com), which several highly reputed global diabetes experts established to understand the relationship between COVID-19 and new-onset diabetes.
