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Director, Vallabhbhai
Patel Chest Institute
(1991 to 1998) |
Harbans Singh Randhawa was born on October 5, 1933 in village
Bhangali Kalan, District Amritsar, Punjab. He got early education
in rural schools before joining Khalsa College at Amritsar. He
got B.Sc. Hons. degree from Punjab University in 1951.his M.Sc.
thesis on the nutrition of Colletotrichum capsici, the
etiologic agent of die-back disease of chillies, was completed
under the guidance of the late Prof. K.S. Thind, an eminent mycologist
and plant pathologist
Randhawa's association with Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute
(VPCI) dates back to January 1957 when he joined as Assistant
Research Officer (Mycologist) in an ICMR-financed comprehensive
research project on bagassosis conducted by the founder Director,
the late Prof. Raman Viswanathan. Apart from his responsibility
in the bagassosis studies, he was asked to organize a clinical
mycology laboratory. In this assignment, he received considerable
initial support and encouragement from the late Dr. Hans F. Smetana,
a renowned visiting pathologist from the Armed Forces Institute
of Pathology, Washington, USA, the late Lt. Col. A. J. H. de Monte,
Asst. Director and Head, Department of Bacteriology, and Dr. H.
D. Tandon, Head, Department of Pathology. During this early phase histoplasmosis
was the first respiratory and systemic mycosis to be taken up
as a pilot study.Following the establishment of a Department of
Medical Mycology in 1959, Randhawa was appointed on its faculty
as a Junior Research Officer. While in service, he was awarded
Ph. D. degree by the University of Delhi in 1964 for the thesis
entitled, “Studies on the Pathogenic Fungus Flora of Man in India
with special reference to Geophilic Dermatophytes and Related
Keratinophilic Fungi”. In 1968, he was appointed as Senior Research
Officer (later redesignated as Reader with introduction of U.
G. C. pay scales), Professor of Medical Mycology in 1980 and Director
in 1991.
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Dr. Randhawa was awarded several coveted international traveling
fellowships such as the Nuffield Foundation Fellowship (UK), 1963-64;
Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (Germany), 1970-71; Fulbright
Fellowship (USA), 1980; etc. He has done collaborative research
work with a number of leading international research centers such
as Institute of Diseases of the Chest & Brompton Hospital, London
(UK); Robert Koch Institute, Berlin (Germany); Centers for Disease
Control (CDC), Atlanta (USA) and Centralbureau voor Schimmelcultures,
Baarn, Netherlands. He is recipient of a number of national and
international awards/honors. Notable among these are the Shome Memorial
Oration Award, Mycological Society of India, 1981; Warner-NCCP (I)
Chest Oration Award, 1983; the ISHAM-Lucille Georg Award of the
International Society for Human and Animal Mycology, bestowed on
him in Adelaide, Australia, 1994, and the Raman Vishwanathan Memorial
Oration, NCCP(I), 1996. Dr Randhawa served as Vice-president of
the International Society for Human and Animal Mycology for 3 years
(1985-88). He is a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy,
Founder Fellow, National College of Chest Physicians (India) and
a Fellow of the Indian College of Allergy and Applied Immunology.
Since 1971, he has been a member of the Editorial Board of “Medical
Mycology” (formerly “Sabouraudia”/ “Journal of Medical and Veterinary
Mycology”), a bimonthly periodical of the International Society
for Human and Animal Mycology. He has also served as an Editorial
Advisory Board member/ Editor of the “Mycoses” (formerly “Mykosen”),
a monthly periodical of Deutschsprachige Mykologiche Gesellschaft
(German-speaking Mycological Society), and as an Editor of the “Indian
Journal of Chest Diseases and Allied Sciences”.
Dr. Randhawa’s academic career spans over four decades of service
in VPCI. His research studies have focused on the etiopathogenesis
of invasive and hypersensitivity diseases of the respiratory tract
due to fungi and Actinomycetes. His major interest has been in epidemiology
of respiratory and systemic mycoses. He has extensively collaborated
with investigators in thoracic medicine, pathology, surgery, dermatology
and otorhinolaryngology, etc. He is globally known for the discovery
of Candida viswanathii and some other fungi of clinical interest.
His other contributions (jointly with the Mycology group of VPCI)
include the development and introduction of a number of rapid laboratory
diagnostic techniques as well as culture media now widely accepted,
elucidation of the ecology of human pathogenic fungi, preparation
and application of immunodiagnostic reagents for aspergillosis,
blasmomycosis, histoplasmosis and candidiasis. He and his co-workers
unequivocally documented for the first time the endemic occurrence
of blastomycosis in India. They were also the first to isolate the
etiologic agent , Blastomyces dermatitidis from the visceral organs
of bats (Rhinopoma hardwickei hardwickei), thus implicating these
flying mammals as an additional host or a vector of this dimorphic
pathogen.
Dr Randhawa has trained a number of post-graduate students, many
of whom have established themselves as distinguished researchers
and teachers in Medical Mycology/Microbiology. He has over 125 publications
including review articles and editorials in leading scientific periodicals.
Many of these publications are widely cited in standard text books
and monographs of Medical Mycology /Microbiology.
Recognizing the significant contributions made by Dr. Randhawa
and his associate to the study of respiratory fungal diseases, an
ICMR-funded National Reference Centre for Respiratory Mycoses was
established in 1985 in the Department of Medical Mycology at VPCI.
The XIII Congress of the International Society for Human & Animal
Mycology (ISHAM), held at Salsamaggiore Terme, Parma, Italy, 1997,
elected Dr Randhawa as one of its Honorary Members. Following his
retirement as Director,VPCI in October 1998, he is actively engaged
in research in the institute as an Honrary Senior Scientist of The
Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi.
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