Dilip Mahalanabis, Honorary Senior Fellow
Dr. Dilip Mahalanabis is a paediatrician with subspeciality: Paediatric Gastroenterology and nutrition. After obtaining his degree in Medicine from the Calcutta University, he took training in Paediatrics (Medical College, Calcutta, Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children, London, and John Hopkins University, USA). On his return from abroad, he joined a team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University International Centre in Calcutta, which was responsible for the early seminal work on Oral Rehydration Therapy(ORT) for diarrhoeal diseases. He conducted the first definitive field trial of Oral Rehydration Therapy under the most difficult field situation during a massive outbreak of cholera among the millions of Bangladesh refugees taking shelter in India in 1971. This work formed an important basis for the Global Programme of Diarrhoeal Diseases Control of WHO and UNICEF.
Dr.Mahalanabis joined WHO in Geneva as a Staff Member in 1983 and was responsible for promoting ORT globally, particularly for its acceptance by both the profession and the people. In 1988, he joined ICDDR, B in Dhaka, an International Health and Population Research Centre, as its Director of Clinical Sciences and led a large research division for 7 years. In 1994, he was elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In 1995, he established a research institute in the not for profit domain (Society for Applied Studies) of which he is the Director. In 2002, he was awarded Pollin Prize in Paediatric Research for his contribution to the discovery and implementation of ORT by the University of Columbia and Cornell, USA.
As its Senior Fellow Dr. Mahalanabis assists IDSK in setting priorities for health research and development and in training investigators for health related research programmes.
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