Pinaki Panigrahi

Dr. Panigrahi, a Pediatric Infectious Disease specialist spent 25 years at University of Maryland before coming to University of Nebraska Medical Center as a professor and the founding Director of the Center for Global Health and Development. Starting his career with a Shannon Award from the NIH Director’s office and a Young Investigator award from the Eastern Society for Pediatric Research for his seminal work in gut microbiota in necrotizing enterocolitis, Dr. Panigrahi has contributed to childhood diseases that affect populations worldwide. He has directed many health initiatives with funding from NIH and Child Health Research Foundation-Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, and various funding agencies in the U.S., U.K, and India with a total funding of ~ $15 M during the last fifteen years and is currently involved with public health-related projects in multiple South Asian and African countries. He studies microbiota and impact of environmental exposures on health of women and children and utilizes large cohorts for longitudinal assessments. Dr. Panigrahi was instrumental in establishing the Asian Institute of Public Health in Odisha (converted to a university by state legislature in December 2017), a center of excellence in India engaged in laboratory, hospital, and population-based surveillance and clinical research, public health education, and service with collaborating faculty from USA, UK, and Canada.