Dr. Soumya Swaminathan has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, following the path of her father, Bharat Ratna awardee Dr. M.S. Swaminathan.
The announcement places Dr. Soumya Swaminathan in a rare bracket of Indian scientists. In the Royal Society’s 365-year history, she is the first Indian to be elected as a Fellow after their father also held the honour. Her father, the architect of India’s Green Revolution, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, was earlier inducted as a Fellow of the world’s oldest scientific institution.
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan served as Chief Scientist of the World Health Organization during the COVID-19 pandemic, where she played a key global role in science communication and pandemic response. She has also held the post of Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Her election is also significant for Indian women in science. She becomes only the second Indian woman scientist to be named a Fellow of the Royal Society, after Professor Gagandeep Kang, who was elected in 2019.
Currently, Dr. Swaminathan is the principal advisor for the National TB Elimination Program in India.
The Royal Society, founded in 1660, elects Fellows for their substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge. With this honour, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan joins a lineage that includes Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Albert Einstein, while carrying forward her father’s legacy in Indian and global science.
