Sharmila Mande obtained her M.Sc (Physics) degree from Nagpur University in 1984. She received her PhD degree from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore in 1991. She had her post-doctoral trainings in Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands and University of Washington, Seattle, USA. After returning to India, she continued her research in Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTech, Chandigarh) and Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER, Chandigarh). She joined TCS in 2001 to start TCS’ Bioinformatics and Computational Biology R&D activities and has created a world-class group focusing on Fundamental & Translational Research in niche areas. Post her superannuation in 2022, she continues as advisor to Life Sciences Research at TCS. She is presenting holding an ‘Ayush Distinguished Scientist Chair’ position from Ministry of Ayush. She is also a Guest Professor at IIT-Gandhinagar and Visiting Professor of Practice at IIT-Kanpur and IIT-Gandhinagar.

Academic and Research Achievements: Her research focus has been on development of innovative algorithms for analyzing, visualizing and modeling complex OMICs (genomics, metagenomics, etc.) data. Over 2 decades of research at TCS Research, she spearheaded several PPP-projects from TCS involving several National and International academic/research Institutes as well as hospitals. These include the ‘BioSuite’ project under the CSIR’s NMITLI Scheme, involving more than 20 academic partners, which received ‘FAPCCI’ and ‘NASSCOM’ award. She was also one of the PIs in National-level ‘Grand challenge systems biology project’ on Tuberculosis, in collaboration with nine academic/research institutes. Her other collaborative research focused on malnutrition, diabetes, leprosy, vitiligo, pre-term birth, neonatal sepsis, bioremediation, respectively. She is a pioneer to initiate cutting edge research in the niche ‘Microbiome’/‘Metagenomics’ field in India and has developed algorithms and solutions having huge translational potentials. These innovations include novel methods for disease-diagnostics, therapy, health-monitoring and other industrial applications. The translational value of her work is evident from her patent-portfolio (more than 60 Granted-patents and several filed-patents). She also has more than 100 publications in peer-reviewed International-journals.

Other contributions: She has served as an advisory/expert committee member for (1) Dept. of Bioengineering and Biotechnology, IIT-Delhi; (2) Dept. of Bioengineering, IIT-Jodhpur; (3) Dept. Of Biotechnology, IIIT-Delhi. She also served as a member of two advisory/expert committee constituted by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India (GoI). These were Technical Sub-Committee of Expert Consultative Committee (ECC) for ‘Waste to Wealth Mission’ and the DRIIV (Delhi Research Implementation and Innovation cluster) projects supported by PSA’s office, GoI. She also served as an Editorial Board member of the international peer-reviewed journal ‘Gut Pathogens’.

Awards and Honours: Her immense contributions have been recognized with several awards. She received the ‘TATA-Innovista’ award for her innovative method for predicting risk of diseases/disorders and TCS’ Distinguished Scientist award. She is a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) and Maharashtra Academy of Sciences.