Soundarya Soundararajan currently serves as a Medical Scientist at the National Institute of Occupational Health under the Indian Council of Medical Research. After receiving her medical degree (MBBS). She pursued a Ph.D. in Clinical Neurosciences at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, India. During her Ph.D., Dr. Soundarya ventured into molecular biology and successfully completed her thesis on Epigenetic Study in Alcohol Dependence in subjects with Chronic alcohol consumption.
Dr. Soundarya worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA. This was a particularly notable and enriching life experience, in her words. As a postdoc at the NIAAA/NIH, she studied genetic variations in alcohol response and alcohol consumption to understand what drives the addictive processes underlying alcohol use disorder (AUD).
Dr. Soundarya was recruited as a medical scientist at the ICMR in 2021 and has been affiliated with the National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad, India. Aligned with the institute’s mission, she focuses on occupational health, particularly occupational mental health. She envisions administering effective workplace interventions to combat occupational stress associated with and driven substance use disorder and advocate for Open Science.
