Sachi Mohan Mukerjee obtained his DSc (1960) from University of Calcutta specializing in medical microbiology. He served as the Deputy Director, Indian Institute of Experimental Medicine (now Indian Institute of Chemical Biology), Kolkata and later Director, WHO International Reference Centre for Vibrios, and Cholera Research Centre, ICMR.

Academic and Research Achievements: Mukerjee developed a phage-typing technique for Vibrio cholerae for epidemiological use in detecting the sources of origin and lines of the spread of cholera epidemics. His work on the development of a live oral cholera vaccine by using a nonpathogenic Vibrio eltor strain attracted wide interest. One human volunteer trial proved its safety for human use, which also gave evidence of its ability to provide a surer and longer lasting protection that the conventional injectable cholera vaccine.

Other Contributions: Mukerjee served on WHO and re-wrote a chapter on Diagnostic Use of Bacteriophages for Gradwohl’s famous treatise Clinical Laboratory Methods of Diagnosis.

Awards and Honours: Mukherjee was a Life Member, Association of Microbiologists of India; Honorary Member, Association of Medical Microbiologist of India and Indian Medical Association; Member, New York Academy of Sciences and American Society for Microbiology. He received the Watumull Award (Honolulu University) (1962); Basanti Devi Amir Chand Senior Award (ICMR) (1965); Amrut Modi Research Foundation Award (1970) and Professor Vyas Memorial Oration (Association of Microbiologists of India) (1972).