Rajan Sankar
An Indian national, Rajan Sankar joined GAIN in March 2006. Dr. Sankar is responsible for supporting GAIN’s program development and grant management in India, under the leadership and support of the Executive Director and Directors in Geneva.
Dr. Sankar is a medical graduate from the University of Madras with a specialization in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology. His special areas of interest are thyroid disorders in pregnant women and in children and micronutrient deficiency disorders. He has undergone training in Clinical Epidemiology and has extensive experience with managing and monitoring micronutrient deficiency elimination programs in India and the South Asia region generally.
Prior to joining GAIN, Dr. Sankar was a Project Officer in the Child Development and Nutrition section of UNICEF in India, responsible for the coordination of micronutrient malnutrition elimination programs with eleven field offices and the India country office. Before this, he was Regional Technical Advisor for Asia with the Micronutrient Initiative (MI) responsible for the strategic development and delivery of micronutrient malnutrition control programs in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal.
From 1994 to 2001, Dr. Sankar was head of the Thyroid Research Centre within the Government of India’s Ministry of Defense in New Delhi. In 2001, he retired from the Indian Army Medical Corps in the rank of Colonel after 24 years of service. He has been a member of the Steering Committee on Universal Salt Iodization of the Government of India and is the Vice President of the Thyroid Association of India. He has published over 50 scientific papers in national and international journals.
