Minnie Mariam Mathan earned her MBBS through the Christian Medical College, Vellore, Madras University. She then specialized in pathology and obtained her MD and PhD from the Madras University, while continuing on the Faculty of the Christian Medical College, Vellore. She was trained in Ultrastructural Pathology by Professor Jerry Trier at the Boston University (1970-71) and became skilled in the use of the Electronmicroscope to study structure function relationships in the gastrointestinal tract. Professor Mathan was the Head of the Department of Gastrointestinal Sciences in Christian Medical College, Vellore (1993-97) and remained there till her superannuation (1997). She was awarded the first Research Chair at that institution.

Academic and Research Achievements: Mathan initiated studies on gastrointestinal ultra-structure in association with the Department of Gastrointestinal Sciences and was able to establish a model of the pathogenesis of the intestinal lesion in Tropical Sprue, combining techniques of electronmicroscopy, in vitro organ culture and immunological studies. She also established the role of rotavirus as an important pathogen of acute diarrhea in children in India, a major public health problem. Working closely with clinical colleagues she showed that an endotoxin-induced vascular lesion in the intestinal lamina propria is a major determinant of clinical severity in patients with acute diarrhea including cholera. She trained numerous students for MD in Pathology and mentored four PhDs.

Other Contributions: Mathan fostered a multidisciplinary group of research workers at the Christian Medical College, Vellore. She was a Consultant Pathologist at the International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Consultant in electronmicroscopy to the Indian Council of Medical Research and an INSA Senior Scientist till 1997. She is also active in social service.

Awards and Honours: Professor Mathan received Hoechst Om Prakash Award (1977) and the Boots Gastroenterology Award (1988) and a recipient of Kshanica Oration Award by ICMR (1995); Amruth Mody Unichem Prize (1996) and Parke Davis Oration Award by the Indian Society of Gastroenterology (1996). She received the Basanthi Devi Amirchand Award (1997) as well as the Ranbaxy Science Foundation Award (1997). She is a Fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (1993); a Founder Fellow of the Indian College of Pathologist (1993) and a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, UK (1996)