From the Director’s Desk

Dr. Rajnarayan R. Tiwari, is a community physician who obtained his MD in Preventive and Social Medicine from Government Medical College, Nagpur and PhD in Life Sciences from Gujarat University. In addition, he is also holding Master’s degree in Public Administration, Economics and Sociology. He started his career as Lecturer in Indira Gandhi Medical College, Nagpur before shifting to National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad in 2000 as scientist where he worked till 2015. He is former Director of National Institute of Miners’ Health Nagpur, a Ministry of Mines Government of India, institute and former Director (Additional Charge) of ICMR-National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad.

Dr. Tiwari is currently the Director of ICMR-National Institute for Research in Environmental Health (NIREH), Bhopal with additional charge of Director, ICMR-National Institute of Research in Tribal Health, Jabalpur.

Dr. Tiwari has worked extensively on occupational health with focus on occupational dust related lung disorders such as silicosis, asbestosis and coal workers pneumoconiosis; occupational hazards of working children and development of occupational health manpower. Currently, he is involved in air pollution related research, developing competency based environmental health resources and context specific heat action plan for Madhya Pradesh.

He has 283 research publications in the field of occupational, environmental and public health in national and international journals. He is also the Editor of two books titled “Environmental and Occupational Exposures: Reproductive Impairment” and “Recent trends in Environmental Health” and reviewer to many national and international peer-reviewed journals. He has also guided 42 AFIH students and 26 MPH EOH students for their dissertation/thesis work. He is an adjunct/visiting faculty of Occupational and Environmental Health to Manipal University, Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar, ICMR-National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad and ISTAR Anand.

He has worked on 33 projects as principal and co-investigator related to occupational and environmental health sponsored by national and international agencies. His work is recognized through WHO Fellowship, Fellowship award of IAPSM and Fellowship award of IPHA. He is the only Fellow of National Academy of Medical Sciences in the country in the field of Occupational and Environmental Health. He is also a Life Member of National Academy of Sciences (India), National Environmental Science Academy and Epidemiological Foundation of India. In 2014, he was awarded with ICMR National award for research work in the field of Community Medicine. In recognition to his contribution in developing occupational health manpower in India and Gujarat, he was awarded with honorary AFIH by Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health, Government of Gujarat in 2013. In 2024, he received the JC Kothari Oration award by Indian Association of Occupational Health.