Madhukar Pai: As a child, I wanted to be a doctor. But once I started medical school, I realized I wanted to prevent people from falling sick ("turn off the tap") and not fix things once people fell sick ("mop the floor"). This realization made me become an epidemiologist and public health researcher. I care about the science of disease prevention, the science that keeps populations healthy.
Madhukar Pai: Several people inspired and mentored me in my career! I thanked them all in this TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjrzYzY98TQ
When I was a medical student, I was lucky to join a network of socially oriented health professionals called Medio Friend Circle (still active after 50 years!). This group opened my eyes to social determinants of health, and the wider sociopolitical context within which medical care operates. MFC had and still has many inspiring people.
Once I joined my public health residency program at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, South India, and my PhD epidemiology program at the University of California, Berkeley, I had other professors who inspired and mentored me.
In short, very lucky to have had so many wonderful teachers and mentors. Without them, I would be nothing.
Madhukar Pai: My biggest source of happiness and impact comes from teaching and students. I am passionate about teaching and mentorship. Many of my trainees are doing great work all over the world and seeing their success and impact makes me proud.
I have made several scholarly contributions to global health pedagogy, including publications that speak to the need to reimagine the way we teach global health, discourage saviorism, and also make sure we address glocal needs (local as well as global). My teaching website offers free access to all my teaching materials: https://www.teachepi.org/
Madhukar Pai: In a world increasingly threatened by climate crisis, conflicts, pandemics, and widening economic inequities, we are not dealing with one pressing issue. We are dealing with polycrisis.
In these difficult times, I see young people as a huge source of hope. Young people have great moral clarity. In fact, climate activism, gun control, Black Lives Matter, Decolonizing Global Health, and many other social movements today are mostly led by youth.
So, anything we can do to back young people and open leadership opportunities would be very impactful.
Madhukar Pai:
1. Strong training in a specific area, ability to strategically think about what needs to be done and how to execute
2. Good communication
3. Ability to work with teams
Madhukar Pai: Over the years, I have grown to realize that the field of global health is neither diverse nor truly global. Every aspect of global health is dominated by individuals and institutions in the Global North. Global South scientists struggle to even get visas to attend international conferences. They struggle to pay article processing charges, and they are rarely invited to serve on editorial boards. Their knowledge is mostly invisible.
Global public health cannot be a pursuit or passion of the most privileged. It needs to firmly center on people with the greatest lived experience. As my colleagues and I wrote in a commentary published recently, this will require leadership by the Global South and allyship by the Global North.
For young people starting their careers, I would encourage them to find their “purpose” in life, their passion. Once they find it, they will find a way to become impactful.
Interview conducted by Monaemul Islam Sizear
Prof Madhukar Pai, MD, PhD, FCAHS, FRSC is the Inaugural Chair, Department of Global and Public Health at the McGill School of Population and Global Health. He holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Epidemiology & Global Health. He was previously Director of the McGill International TB Centre. He is Editor-In-Chief of PLOS Global Public Health. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
Madhu Pai did his medical training and community medicine residency in Vellore, India. He completed his PhD in epidemiology at UC Berkeley, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the UCSF.
Madhu serves on the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for TB in the South-East Asia Region, and the WHO Advisory group on Tuberculosis Diagnostics and Laboratory. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of FIND, Geneva. He serves as the Chair of the Public-Private Mix (PPM) Working Group of the Stop TB Partnership. He serves on the editorial boards of Lancet Infectious Diseases, PLoS Medicine, and BMJ Global Health, among others. He is Editor-In-Chief of PLOS Global Public Health.
Madhu’s research is mainly focused on improving the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis, especially in high-burden countries like India and South Africa. His research is supported by grant funding from the Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada, and Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He has more than 400 publications. He is recipient of the Union Scientific Prize, Chanchlani Global Health Research Award, Haile T. Debas Prize, and David Johnston Faculty & Staff Award. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
