On Health and Disease: From Models to Policy with Dr. Gautam Menon

Dr Gautam Menon’s journey through science has been unique. He started as a physicist who moved on to biophysics, and later to disease modelling and public policy. We interviewed Dr Menon to understand his perspective on being agile to confidently swap fields, the boons of an interdisciplinary approach to science, why collaborations are critical for great science, and how young students can get their feet wet to influence public policy.

Dr Menon didn’t start with the intention to become an interdisciplinary scientist. His physics background armed him with the tools to address difficult problems. He moved on from physics to biology, and subsequently to policy as his interests evolved. He recommends that students follow their interests. He credits his teachers, who were not only excellent at imparting knowledge but also good people. They encouraged him to be creative, independent, hardworking, and also be a good person. They taught him that science is a collaboration and not a zero-sum game. He believes that the best science is done through collaborations.

He thinks that to comfortably move between scientific disciplines, one needs to be an expert in at least one domain. This establishes your credibility and encourages people to take you seriously. Even though he followed a non-traditional career path, he was never unsure about it because he was following his interests. He believes that everyone has something special to contribute, which could be a unique perspective or ability. The secret is to find out what is unique about you and then specialise in that niche. Everyone has this potential within them.

If students want to influence policy at an early stage in their career, they need to find the right person or organisation to work with, Dr Menon recommends. One way is to intern at an NGO. This will allow students to understand at the ground level the problem a policy change needs to address. This is also advice he wishes he had when he was a student. Sometimes, the enormity of the problem we’re faced with can be so daunting that it depresses us completely. This is one of the challenges he faces while teaching his students at Ashoka about climate change. He thinks that this dejection can be avoided by everyone taking personal responsibility, such as taking public transport, buying locally-sourced produce, being activists to raise awareness about the problem, and being aware of our rights as citizens, so that we can empower those less fortunate than us. 

He put this philosophy into action during the COVID-19 pandemic. He developed an agent-based model to understand the spread of COVID-19. This project was only possible through critical collaborations with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and with Thoughtworks. This model is now being applied to study the spread of H5N1, Mpox, Dengue, and Typhoid. This work has appeared in Nature India and the BBC, demonstrating that India can be a geography where top-of-the-line disease modelling work can be done. This was only possible through a trinity of collaboration between scientists, industry, and NGOs, validating his philosophy.

Link to the interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P_42p2YAbU

Written by,

Deven Matkari