Aditya Prasad Dash

Aditya Prasad Dash is a scientist who has worked for decades on diseases spread by mosquitoes and other carriers, which fall hardest on poor communities. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2022 in the field of science and engineering, from Odisha ^[1].

A career in disease research

Dash was born on 23 March 1951 and earned his PhD and DSc at Utkal University ^[2]. He began his career with the Indian Council of Medical Research, studying how malaria, dengue and lymphatic filariasis spread ^[2]. He went on to direct the Institute of Life Sciences in Bhubaneswar, the National Institute of Malaria Research in Delhi and the National Institute for Research on Tribal Health in Jabalpur, and later served as regional adviser at the World Health Organization’s South-East Asia office ^[2]. He was vice-chancellor of the Central University of Tamil Nadu and, at the time of the award, of the Asian Institute of Public Health in Bhubaneswar ^[2].

Findings that reached the field

He has published about 300 papers, including in Nature Genetics and The Lancet ^[2]. His work showed that the mosquito Anopheles annularis carries malaria in rural India, found the enzyme telomerase in the sexual stage of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, and helped show that mass drug administration combined with mosquito control can eliminate lymphatic filariasis ^[2]. Tools and strategies he developed have been used by several countries to control malaria, filariasis, kala-azar, dengue and other diseases ^[2].

His honours include the ICMR’s Dr T. R. Rao Award in 1991 and the Dr A. P. Ray Award for malaria research in 2012 ^[2].