Manmohandas B Soparkar obtained MD (1913) from University of Bombay. He served Indian Medical Service and was Medical Officer, Plague Research Enquiry, Indian Research Fund Association (now Indian Council of Medical Research), Haffkine Institute, Mumbai; Clinical Registrar of Medicine, JJ Hospital, Mumbai; Assistant Director, Central Research Institute, Kasauli; Office-in-Charge, Bovine Tuberculosis Inquiry, Imperial Institute of Veterinary Research, Mukteswar; Assistant Director, Haffkine Institute; and Honorary Chief Medical Officer, Ramakkrishna Medical Hospital, Mumbai.

Academic and Research Achievements: Soparkar was well known for his work on plague. In 1918, he devised a special medium for cultivating the influenza bacillus. He investigated human schistosomes from Indian soldiers who returned from World War I and found larval forms of several trematode parasites including animal schistosomes. He developed a method for cultivating the tubercle bacillus and studied the vitality of the organism under natural and artificial conditions and the channels of spread of the disease in human beings. He also studied animal tuberculosis; described a new species Ceracaria patialonsis; discovered, for the first time, that tuberculosis among animals was not a rare disease in India; demonstrated that the bacillus causing bovine tuberculosis in India was highly virulent; and studied various aspects of tuberculosis in men.

Awards and Honours: Dr Soparkar was conferred Dossabhoy Hormusjee Cama Prize by the University of Bombay, Minto Gold Medal and King George V Silver Jubilee Medal. He was also President of the Medical Section, Indian Science Congress (1949).