Gagandeep Kang facts for kids

Gagandeep Kang, born on November 3, 1962, is an amazing Indian scientist. She is a microbiologist and virologist. This means she studies tiny living things like bacteria and viruses. Since 2023, she has been working at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. There, she helps fight diseases that affect the stomach and intestines, like diarrhea.

Before this, Dr. Kang was a professor at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India. From 2016 to 2020, she was the executive director of the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute in Faridabad. Her main work focuses on viral infections in children. She also tests rotavirus vaccines. She studies other stomach infections and how they affect children early in life. She also looks at how clean water and sanitation can help.

In 2016, Dr. Kang won the important Infosys Prize in Life Sciences. She earned this award for helping us understand rotavirus and other infectious diseases. In 2019, she made history. She became the first Indian woman to be chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very old and respected group of scientists.

Dr. Kang also helped write a book called Till We Win: India's Fight Against The COVID-19 Pandemic. She wrote it with Chandrakant Lahariya and Randeep Guleria. The book talks about India's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Early Life and Learning

Gagandeep Kang was born in Shimla, India, on November 3, 1962. Her mother taught English and history. Her father was a mechanical engineer for the Indian Railways. Growing up, Dr. Kang moved around a lot in India. She changed schools ten times!

Even as a child, she loved science. When she was 12, she and her father built a science lab at home. She did many experiments in biology, physics, and chemistry.

Dr. Kang studied medicine at Christian Medical College, Vellore. She earned her first medical degree in 1987. Then, she got her MD in Microbiology in 1991. She continued her studies and received her PhD in 1998. She also did special research at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, USA. After that, she returned to the Christian Medical College.

Her Work and Discoveries

Dr. Kang is a medical scientist who has worked on diarrhea diseases. She has also focused on public health in India since the early 1990s. She is a key person in understanding rotavirus and vaccines in India.

Her research looks at vaccines and infections in young children. She studies how these infections affect children in communities that are not well-off. She combines studying diseases in the field with detailed lab work. This helps both science and health policies in India.

Her deep research on rotavirus showed how common this disease is across India. It also showed how different the viruses can be. Her work explored ways to make oral vaccines work better. Because of her important work, some people call her India's "vaccine godmother."

Dr. Kang has written more than 300 scientific papers. She has also been on the boards of several science journals. She helps review research for many groups that give money for science. She has also advised committees about vaccines. These include India's National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation. She also advises the WHO's Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety.

Dr. Kang played a big part in creating Rotavac. This is a vaccine from Bharat Biotech that fights diarrhea. She was one of the main researchers who tested this vaccine. Her early interest was finding out what protects people from rotavirus infection. Her work helped develop good lab methods to find rotaviruses. She and her students also created tests for rotavirus infections. These tests were used to check Rotavac.

Since 2020, Dr. Kang has been part of a group working on COVID-19 vaccines for the WHO. She was also involved in India's efforts to create a coronavirus vaccine.

Awards and Honors

Dr. Kang is the second Indian woman scientist to be chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). This is a huge honor in the 359-year history of this science group. She was also the ninth woman to receive the Infosys Prize. She is the first Indian person and the first woman to edit Manson's Textbook of Tropical Medicine.

Here are some of her other awards:

• 1998–1999 – Dr. P.N. Berry Fellowship
• 2005 – The Lourdu Yedanapalli Award for Excellence in Research
• 2006 – Woman Bioscientist of the Year
• 2016 – Infosys Prize in Life Sciences
• 2019 – Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
• 2024 – Canada Gairdner Global Health Award