Building Bridges Reaching Minds
Shweta Khandelwal, a trained public health nutritionist, has a doctorate in Human Nutrition from the University of Delhi as well as a second Master’s degree in Public health (distance learning) from LSHTM, UK. Shweta has also completed a 2 year NIH sponsored D43 postdoctoral fellowship (Evaluation Grade: A/Excellent) from Emory University, Atlanta and Centre for Chronic Disease (CCDC), New Delhi. At PHFI she has significantly contributed to the development and supervision of the online academic initiative in Public Health Nutrition for 4 years from inception (March 2010- March 2014). She is involved in curriculum development and teaching (Major areas: Public health nutrition, Nutrition epidemiology, Health promotion). As a part of capacity strengthening (in nutrition) initiatives, Shweta has been the Course Director of the International Training seminar on Nutrition Epidemiology series for the past six years. With about 35 peer reviewed publications, Shweta has also served as the Lead, capacity building arm, as a part of the DFID-funded international project (of which PHFI is one of the 6 partner institutions) called “Transform Nutrition” (2011-2015).
She has recently been awarded the 5 year Early Career Fellowship by the Wellcome-DBT Alliance (Dec 2015) to undertake a randomised clinical trial to assess the impact of prenatal DHA supplementation on offspring neurodevelopment in India (DHANI trial). She has previously also received Government of India (GoI), Dept of Science and Technology’s prestigious Young Scientist Award to examine the impact of prenatal Docosahexanoic acid (DHA) supplementation on newborn anthropometry (2013) in the same cohort as above. She is also the recipient of Wellcome Trust funded Career Development Research Fellowship by PHFI (2014-2015). Additionally, she has served as a co-investigator on a couple of research projects (salt intake in India, trans fats, diet and inflammation, etc). Shweta is also an invited member on the Expert Panel on Sugar, Salt and fats in India, constituted by the Food Safety Standards Authority of India, MoHFW, GoI (2015). Shweta has been identified as an “Emerging leader in the area of cardiovascular prevention” by the World Heart Federation (first cohort-2014).
Past experience:
She is a UGC-NET qualified researcher who received Junior and Senior research fellowships to complete her doctoral thesis by the Delhi University. Her thesis work revolved around analyzing the effect of dietary factors (in particular, omega 3 fatty acids and plant sterol-esters) on the cardiovascular risk factors. She graduated from G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar and later went to the SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai where she got her Masters’ degree in Food Science and Nutrition with high academic honours.
Honors and merits:
Shweta has been conferred many prestigious awards like the “Significant Contribution Award” from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi (Jan 2014), Young Scientist Award 2009 in Experimental Nutrition (by the Nutrition Society of India, NIN), Dr. K.U. Naram Award for securing first rank in the M.H.Sc. in 2004-2005 from S.N.D.T. University, Mumbai, Dr. Dhirajlal Dhanjibai Shah Memorial Prize (First prize) for securing the highest G.P.A. in the Foods and Nutrition Deptt in M.H.Sc. in 2005, The Association of Scientists and Technologists (India) Bombay Chapter Prize for standing first in 2004-2005 in Post Graduate Deptt of Foods and Nutrition, S.N.D.T. University, Mumbai.
Areas of Interest: