Dr. Lazar Mathew

Dr. Lazar Mathew, a specialist in Health Technology and Environmental Health, is currently the Advisor, Medical Sciences, Engineering & Technology, PSG Institute of Advanced Studies, Coimbatore. Previously he was the the Dean of the School, of Biotechnology, Chemical & Biomedical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore. He had a brilliant academic record topping the University, both in graduate and postgraduate courses. Dr. Mathew is a specialist in Environmental Physiology & Medicine with a Doctorate (Ph.D;) from Delhi University in the subject. He was instrumental in establishing the High Altitude Medical Research Centre at Leh (12000 ft. high). He is a Fellow of Academy of Biomedical Scientists (FABMS); a Fellow of International Medical Sciences Academy (FIMSA); and also a Fellow of Indian Medical Sciences Academy (FAMS).

Dr. Lazar Mathew obtained B.V.Sc; degree from Kerala University with First Class and First Rank, receiving all the 4 Gold medals and 2 University Prizes, in 1964. After a brief spell in Bombay veterinary College (May - August 64) and Amul Dairy (September - December 64), he joined Kasturba Medical College, Manipal on 1st January 1965 as Lecturer in Physiology. He obtained M.Sc. in Medical Physiology from University of Mysore; during this period.

After six years of teaching, he joined Defence Research & Development Organisation where he worked in various capacities for over 31 years. He was Director of Life Sciences at DRDO Head Quarters (6 years); Director at the Defence Bio-Engineering and Electro Medical Laboratory at Bangalore (6 Years) and Director of the Well-known Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences at Delhi for over 3 years. After retirement from DRDO he joined St. Francis Hospital Ajmer as Director on 03-12-2001, where he worked for 4 years creating many new facilities including Asha Niketan [Rural AIDS Centre; a typical mode for developing nations]. He has joined Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore on 01.12.2006. Thus he has 42 years of varied experience in teaching, research and technical management. Dr. Mathew has 192 research publications and 6 technical books to his credit. He has received 12 Research Awards including the "Scientist of the Year Award" from Ministry of Defence in 1996. He had the privilege of working with H.E. Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam for 12 years and was instrumental to initiate "Society for Biomedical Technology" and Dr.Mathew was its Chief Executive for 6 years. During this period, a number of medical equipment and devices were developed indigenously; and are currently in the market.

Dr. Mathew has been Chairman/Member in various committees of Govt. of India, member of Selection Boards for the posts of Directors, Professors and Scientists and referee for evaluation of scientific papers and projects. Currently he is chairman of Bio MEMS Programme of Govt. of India, and Chairman of Bio-Engineering Committee of DST and also Chairman of Expert group on Medical Electronics & Telemedicine of Ministry of Information & Communication Technology. He is a postgraduate teacher and examiner for M.Sc., M.Tech M.D; and Ph.D. degrees and guide for Ph.D. Programmes in 3 Universities. He has travelled abroad several times as head/member of delegations representing our country in various international conferences and meetings.

ASHOK SALHAN, SCIENTIST 'F', ADDITIONAL DIRECTOR

Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS)
Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO)

Dr. Ashok Salhan, is a Medical Graduate from Govt. Medical College Amritsar (Panjab). He joined DRDO in 1986 as Scientist 'B' at INMAS. He has worked in diverse fields such as High Altitude Physiology, Aviation Physiology, Hyperbaric Physiology and BioMedical Instrumentation.

Dr. Salhan devised an EMG based system to detect unconsciousness in Fighter jet Pilots under +Gz-induced Loss of Consciousness or G-LOC. He has recently devised a ‘Physiologicallycontrolled nter effects of high +Gz. He was also involved in the indigenous design and development of a Hyperbaric Chamber capable of simulating depth up to 50 meters under water to train Naval Divers. The chamber is unique in the sense that for the first time in India Physiological parameters of humans can be recorded under actual conditions of hyperbaria.

KENDALL R. WATERS , PhD

Research Scientist
Silicon Valley Medical Instruments
Associate Editor, Transactions on IEEE Ultrasonics Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control (UFFC)

Dr. Kendall R. Waters is a research scientist with Silicon Valley Medical Instruments (SVMI) in Fremont, California, USA. SVMI is focused on developing the next generation of cardiovascular disease treatment enabling technologies. Prior to joining SVMI, Dr. Waters was a senior research scientist with the Advanced Technology Laboratory of Volcano Corp in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was the technical lead for VHTM IVUS, a real-time atherosclerotic lesion assessment technology for use with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging catheters in the coronary arteries.

He is co-inventor on three related pending patents. Dr. Waters is an active member of the Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society (UFFC-S) of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He is Associate Editor of the Transactions on UFFC, Web Editor-in-Chief of the UFFC-S, and UFFC representative to the IEEE Biometrics Council. Dr. Waters has co-authored 17 archival manuscripts and one book chapter related to medical ultrasound and ultrasound physics. He has also served as editor for publications related to computational acoustics and diagnostic applications of ultrasound in bone. Dr. Waters graduated in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin (USA) in 1993.

He completed his Masters and PhD in Physics at the Laboratory for Ultrasonics of Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA in 1995 and 2000, respectively. He received post-doctoral training at the Laboratoire d'Imagerie Paramétrique of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris, France, the Laboratoire Ondes et Acoustique of the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles in Paris, France, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, USA.

Pankaj Sharma

CEO & Cofounder
LeadInvent Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Mr. Sharma is a trained biotechnologist followed by masters in computer application. Mr. Sharma in his masters worked in the area of cryptography and optimized algorithm implementations of public private key methods. During his five year tenure at the Supercomputing Facility for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, IIT Delhi as Project Scientist. Mr. Sharma was instrumental in the creation of various drug discovery protocols and applications. His unique background in life science and computer applications enabled him to contribute several key scientific publications on drug discovery methodologies and protein ligand parallel docking protocols. He started his career with CMC limited and quickly moved from a pure IT based development environment to the challenges of computational biology. His early work on drug like filters, small molecules docking, virtual space monte carlo sampling and protein ligand complex analysis catalyzed the development of IIT Delhi Drug Discovery suit. His recent research work includes cluster technologies for Biosimulations. He has spearheaded several Industry academia initiatives between IIT Delhi and life science community. He has worked closely with HCL Technologies for more than two years in life science consulting domain, architecting viable solutions for pharmaceutical sector. He is a regular speaker in key conferences in life science and computing environment. An accomplished business strategist Mr. Sharma in his present capacity as CEO and Co-founder of LeadInvent is responsible for partnership/alliances and business development of the company.

Dr. Avijit Bansal

Stanford India Biodesign

Avijit Bansal is a Stanford India Biodesign Fellow 2011. Avijit got his graduate degree in medicine (MBBS) from University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi University (DU) and then Post Graduated in Pulmonology and Critical Care (DTCD) from VP Chest Institute, the apex Pulmonology institute in India. Thereafter, he was Senior Resident in a critical care Unit with the Fortis Hospitals, Noida, and then chest specialist at DDU charitable hospital.

Avijit has always been passionate about research. At school, he was selected for the Indian National Biology Olympiad held by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in 2000. He was granted Short term Studentship by Indian Council of Medical Research in 2003 and MPSFER scholarship in 2004. Avijit has authored and conducted several research studies on Medical education, Health seeking behaviours, E-governance in Healthcare etc. In 2004, He conceptualized and founded PAHAL (People for Action in Health Awareness and Learning) - an NGO started to leverage student action through a unique awareness based model for improving community health and scientifically documented the results. These, when presented, won the award of best presentation at the International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) South-East Asia conference at Hyderabad (2005).

He has been working as a Research Consultant with Health Innovation Technology Lab (HITLAB) a New York based research agency on projects dealing with E-governance in Health care and innovative treatment compliance-enhancing devices. He has delivered lectures at various institutes, including Department of Management studies, IIT Delhi.

Avijit, is most passionate about low cost medical devices and believes that they can fulfil a huge number of unmet clinical needs - and make a significant and lasting impact on morbidity and mortality - especially in under-served markets. His areas of interest in medical devices include, among others: Pulmonology and critical care, Sensory substitution, prosthetics, adherence enhancement and E-governance in health care, low cost diagnostics.