Gates Foundation eyeing virologist Gagandeep Kang

VELLORE: Internationally renowned virologist and Vellore CMC Hospital’s professor in the Wellcome Trust Research lab Dr Gagandeep Kang is likely to join the US-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation when she retires from CMC in 2023, informed sources revealed.

Dr Kang will retire in June next year. “I will be reaching 60 next year and after I retire I will be free to join any other entity,” she told this reporter.

Dr Kang is also serving National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), and was instrumental in guiding the nation through the global pandemic which also affected India.

Sources said she had been offered the job of Director - Global Health with the foundation which focuses on gastrointestinal and diarrheal infection and will report to Global Health president Trevor Mundel.

Asked how she would handle her new US assignment as she was currently part of many committees, Dr Kang said: “I am part of many committees both in India and the WHO. I will ensure there is no conflict of interest if I take up the assignment. If any, I will quit such bodies.”

A native of Shimla, she completed her MBBS, MD and PhD at CMC. Though she took her MD in microbiology, she decided to join the Wellcome Trust, which was involved in community research. She was elected fellow of all three Indian Science Academies as also the American Academy of Microbiology and is also the first Indian woman scientist to join London’s Royal Society, sources revealed.