P. Gupta

Dr. Prakash C. Gupta is the Director of Healis – Sekhsaria Institute of Public Health since its foundation on August 1, 2004.  He is an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, USA and a Visiting Scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University, USA.  He was a Senior Research Scientist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (joined October 1966), and Honorary Consultant at the Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai until July 31, 2004.  He was President of the 14th World Conference on Tobacco and Health that was held in Mumbai, India during March 8-12, 2009 and of three national conferences on tobacco or health.  He was President of the Action Council against Tobacco – India and Founder-Member of the Cancer Foundation of India.  He is on advisory panel of numerous NGOs working on cancer control and tobacco control.  He has a Doctor of Science degree in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins University, U.S.A.(1975), and a Master of Science in Statistics from the Bombay University (1965).  He was a Takemi Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, U.S.A. (1984-85), a Visiting Scientist at the International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France (1993-94) and a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at the Medical Research Council, South Africa during July-August 1998.

Dr. Gupta has authored or co-authored 234 papers in peer-reviewed journals, 34 in peer-reviewed proceedings and books, edited or co-edited 17 scientific reports, proceedings and special issue of journals, contributed 20 chapters in 18 books and has contributed to 88 group publications in addition to writing numerous commentaries, editorials, letter to editor, e-articles etc. 

In editorial capacity, Dr. Gupta has been connected with numerous journals in the past as well as currently including as the Regional Editor for South-East Asia for the journal, Tobacco Control.  He has edited special issues of journals and has peer reviewed research papers from over 20 research journals

Dr. Gupta is consulted by many organizations like the World Health Organization, CDC Foundation, International Agency for Research on Cancer, and others.  He is a member of the WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation (TobReg), Steering Committee of the National Cancer Registry Programme of the Indian Council of Medical Research and many more expert groups.

Dr. Gupta has received several prestigious awards.  Some important ones are: the Luther Terry Award from the American Cancer Society for Exemplary Leadership in Tobacco Control in the category of Outstanding Research Contribution presented to him during the 12th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Helsinki, Finland on August 4, 2003;  Tobacco Free World Award from the Director General, World Health Organisation, Geneva on May 31, 1999 for Outstanding Contributions to Public Health.  Other recognitions include a photograph on the cover of the journal Cancer Research vol. 59 no. 10 issue May 15, 1999 with a legend inside and oration award from several institutions.