National Advisors

Professor Dr. Arun Jamkar is Vice President of IEEE EMBS Pune Chapter, Pune (India) and Founder Director and President of Inter Institutional Inclusive Innovations Centre, Pune, India. Professor Dr. Arun Jamkar has done his Masters in Surgery followed by a Ph.D. in Surgical Oncology. He is a trained transplant surgeon from Freeman Hospital, UK and was the first surgeon in Pune to start Renal Transplant Surgery in public sector.

Expertise

• He is a very remarkable man, a Distinguished professor in Symbiosis International University, Pune, Healthcare Consultant of Persistent Systems, Pune, India and also Chief Medical Officer, Indx Technology at CA, USA.
• He is a former Vice Chancellor of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences. He has been the Dean of B.J. Medical College, Pune.
• Dr. Jamkar is a multifaceted person, a surgeon, an eminent educationist, a versatile administrator, a mentor par excellence & globally acknowledged innovator. Due to his efforts and initiative in organ donation and transplantation attained wider acceptance across the various socio, economic and religious strata of the society. He has performed thousands of major cancer surgeries.
• Dr. Jamkar established H1N1 isolation in I.C.U. at Sassoon General hospital, Pune creating respiratory and ventilator care management for critically ill. His unflinching commitment to serve the destitute brought affordable & Renal Transplant Surgery to government hospitals in Pune.

Dr. Dinesh Amalnerkar has worked as Professor Emeritus in Department of Technology, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, India. Recently, he has joined Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering (PCCOE) and Pimpri Chinchwad University (PCU) as Advisor-Research & International Academics. He was Former Executive Director at Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (CMET) (Under Ministry of Electronics & IT, Government of India), Pune, Hyderabad & Thrissur, India.

Expertise

• His name has been featured in the recently published Stanford University global list of top 2 Percentile Scientists in the category of Career Long Research.
• He has over 240 Publications (H index- 43) in International Journals to his credit and 24 Indian & 3 US Patents, 1 book chapter besides 3 Technology Transfers.
• Dr Amalnerkar is recipient of the Materials Research Society of India’s (MRSI) prestigious Medal Award in the year 2008 for his significant contributions in Materials Science and Engineering.
• He was Brain-Pool Invited Scientist & Visiting Professor at Institute of Nanoscience & Technology, Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea. Its been Three Times, he received the Brain-Pool Fellowship by Ministry of Science, Korean Government (2006-2007, 2015-2016 and 2017-2018).
• In December 2022, Engineered Science Society (USA) awarded prestigious Fellowship (FESS) to him for his substantial contributions to advancements made in Science & Engineering on a global scale.

Dr. Padma Shastry is a Principal Scientist (ex-Scientist G) in National Centre for Cell science (NCCS), Pune. She is PhD from Bombay University, India and did her post- doctoral studies at University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. She joined the Immunology department of CVTC, KEM hospital, Parel, Bombay in 1984 as a pool officer and continued as Senior Scientific Officer and worked in the area of Immunology of Acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease. Since 1990, she is working at National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS earlier NFATCC).

Expertise

• She has developed in vitro system using cell lines as alternatives to animals for assessing antibodies to tetanus.
• There are more than 19 publications, authored and co-authored over her vast career and presented many search papers in varied scientific platforms.
• She is a recognized guide for Savitribai Phule Pune University for PhD in zoology and Biotechnology.
• She has been a reviewer for international journals-carcinogenesis, PLOS one, molcarcinogenesis, molecular cancer, chemotherapy, Exp Cell Res etc. She has received extramural funding from agencies- ICMR, DST, DBT, BRNS and had collaborative projects with industry.

Dr. Kalpana Joshi is a scientist of Drug Discovery section at Cipla. She was earlier the Vice President in the Department of Pharmacology and Target Identification Group at Piramal Life Sciences Limited, Mumbai. She was Director in Cancer Pharmacology Department at Nicholas Piramal, India Ltd.

Expertise

• She has delivered eight INDs (new drug documents) in the field of Oncology which includes four small molecule clinical candidates, basically new chemical entity (NCEs), three combinations and one herbal candidate.
• As a core team member to initiate new drug discovery programs at Nicholas Piramal, Dr Kalpana Joshi developed several human tumor xenograft models along with many metastatic and orthotropic models.
• She was involved in cellular target identification, validation, setting up of screening in vitro and in vivo assays and mechanism based in vitro and in vivo assays, lead identification and optimization, and detailed preclinical profiling of actives.
• She was honored for “Nav Durga contributions” in New Drug Discovery by Loksatta at 2017.
• She received an Award “Maharastrian of The Year in Science and Technology” by Lokmat in 2012.
• She has more than 30 publication in peer reviewed scientific journals.

Dr. Rekha Khedekar is MD in Anatomical & Clinical Pathology. Currently, she is working in Quality Management Systems, Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital, Pune, since 2020.

Expertise

• Dr. Khedekar has Professional Memberships of many organizations such as N.J. Society of Pathologists, American Medical Association, College of American Pathologists, Indian Medical Association and Founder Member of Hospital Infection Control Committee, Pune, India.
• She was former Director of Laboratory Medicine, Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital, 2013-2020.
• She was consulting pathologist from different reputed Hospitals in Pune and played different roles while connected with Medical Technology School, Catholic Medical Center, Queens and V A Medical Center, Lyons, New Jersey, U.S.A.