Dean's Message

Given the impact of climate change on health and the urgent need to reduce climate change, the overall goal of the Bagchi School of Public Health is to protect and improve health and the environment locally and globally through impactful research, training, and health promotion. We believe that small steps taken consistently by many can make a huge improvement in our health and our planet. Every step counts!

Ahmedabad University focuses on interdisciplinary research, education, and experiential learning to bring societal change. The objectives for our Bagchi School of Public Health are aligned with the overall University’s mission. Our aims include the following:

  • To develop leaders with the motivation and ability to develop data-driven, wholistic solutions to interdisciplinary problems.
  • To implement innovative no-cost, low-cost, and cost-saving initiatives to prevent disease, maintain wellness, and improve health and health equity.
  • To study ways to understand and mitigate the impact of climate change on health.

We aim to reduce our carbon footprint and improve health through educating and inspiring not only health professionals but also communities and other entities to make eco-friendly and healthy choices. Hence, education, research, and health promotion are central to the Bagchi School of Public Health, and will be more purposeful when integrated with each other around common goals. The goals for health promotion will focus on implementing initiatives that are cost-saving, no-cost, or low-cost and that can be disseminated through digital technology or mass communication and can be adopted by underprivileged segments of society globally. Our research goals accordingly will be geared towards finding such novel modifiable factors that could be translated into innovative interventions, programmes, and policies at the individual, organisation, national, and global levels and evaluation of their impact. The goals for training are hence to develop comprehensive and innovative interdisciplinary programmes. The initial focus will be on environmental health and analytical sciences, including data science.  In the long run, we aim to cover a range of degree programmes from undergraduate to doctorate and speciality areas, as well as to engage with the public, organisation leaders, and other policy makers

The Bagchi School of Public Health was envisioned since the University’s inception, and it is our fourth School at this very critical time when there is a growing need for and awareness of public health. The University’s ongoing high-quality, innovative, interdisciplinary programmes and the emphasis on research and social impact provide an unparalleled setting for its public health mission.

I am both excited and humbled to serve as the first Dean of this School.

Kaumudi Joshipura
Susmita and Subroto Bagchi Professor of Public Health
Dean
Bagchi School of Public Health

Subhash Rajpurohit

KAUMUDI JOSHIPURA

Susmita and Subroto Bagchi Professor of Public Health
Dean
Bagchi School of Public Health

Email: [email protected]
Phone: +91.079.61911251 (Office)
​Faculty Profile: https://ahduni.edu.in/kaumudi-joshipura


Kaumudi Joshipura joined Ahmedabad University as the Dean of the Bagchi School of Public Health and the Susmita and Subroto Bagchi Professor in Public Health in 2023. Professor Joshipura is also an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH). She is also serving on the American Public Health Association advisory committee on Climate and Health Equity. Before joining Ahmedabad, she served as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Endowed Chair and as Director of the Center for Clinical Research and Health Promotion (CCRHP) at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus.

Professor Joshipura has a Master's degree in Biostatistics and a Doctorate in Epidemiology from Harvard University (completed in a record time of two years). Her research (H-index 66) has focused on evaluating lifestyle factors, microbial and inflammatory markers, and other modifiable risk factors for cardiometabolic and other non-communicable diseases. Her recent work includes hurricane preparedness, and COVID-19. She has mentored numerous students and faculty and led several NIH-funded projects, including cohort studies, a randomised controlled trial, and a mentoring grant.

She has served on several editorial boards and is currently the inaugural Chief Editor for an open-access Frontiers journal, now PubMed and Scopus indexed with over 1000 editors/reviewers. At HSPH, she developed and taught methodological and substantive courses, and co-directed training grants, and  is on the steering committee for the Master of Public Health programme in Epidemiology. She has served as an advisor to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Association of Periodontology (AAP), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Her work prioritises identifying and promoting preventive measures that are free, low-cost, or cost-saving, and that can be adopted widely and globally. To this end, she has started a global public movement, VMove, [JK1] to help individuals and organisations incorporate physical activity throughout the day. VMove, launched at a TEDx talk, aims to reduce the risk of several chronic diseases by promoting "CreActivity" (creative physical activity) in different settings to enable people to overcome barriers, change norms and move more throughout the day in a fun manner, and encouraging everyone to help spread and lead the movement. She has also written songs to translate research into action (to reduce sedentary time and single-use plastic). She is passionate about improving both human and planetary health and promoting wellness.

Research Interests

Professor Joshipura has established interdisciplinary research teams and projects and has been continuously funded by NIH and other agencies since 1993. Her recent research projects as Principal Investigator include the following:

  • A cohort study titled San Juan Overweight Adults Longitudinal Study (SOALS), which has led to several funded ancillary studies.
  • A randomised clinical trial to reduce excess gestational weight gain and childhood obesity and improve cardiometabolic health, titled Pregnancy and EARly Lifestyle Improvement Study (PEARLS).
  • PREPARE, a longitudinal study to inform and improve hurricane preparedness efforts at organisation and individual levels.
  • PREPCOVI, an automated digital surveillance study for COVID-19 and influenza.
  • A longitudinal study to understand the inter-relationships between oral microbiome, nitric oxide metabolism, and oral and cardiovascular health.

Her publications have made a global impact, as evidenced by news coverage from CNN, Newsweek, Prevention, Forbes, UK Telegraph, and others.

Research Interests: Public Health, Epidemiology, Climate Change, Implementation Science, Modifiable Risk Factors, Non-Communicable Disease, Water Quality, Nutrition, and Disaster Preparedness.