Dr. Manjeshwar Shrinath Baliga, Senior Radiobiologist and in charge of Research at Mangalore Institute of Oncology, has featured in the ‘World Rankings of Top 2% in a study conducted by Stanford University, USA and published in n the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) Biology. With a score of 3.58, Dr. Baliga is in the top 1.38% in the world; seventh in India, and first in the state of Karnataka in the field of Oncology & Carcinogenesis. The US-based Stanford University created a database of at least 1 lakh top scientists around the world and analyzed information on citations like the H-index, co-authorship, and composite indicator, from SCOPUS data provided by Elsevier for career-long impact by tabulating data from 1960 until the end of May 6, 2020.
Dr. Baliga is the eldest son of Popular travel’s proprietor Shri Prabhakar Baliga and Prema Baliga. He did his schooling and undergraduate studies at St Aloysius College and Masters in Biosciences from Mangalore University. He did his doctoral studies in radiation biology from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, India with research on anticancer and radio modulatory properties of novel agents in 2003. He received advanced training at Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, and a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, USA, and a second post-doctorate from the University of Illinois, Chicago in areas of cancer prevention and metastasis.
Dr. Baliga also has adjunct degrees in Masters of business administration in education management, from Alagappa University and Masters in Psychology and Psychotherapy from Kuvempu University. In addition to this Dr. Baliga has been one of the founding members of the UNESCO Bioethics in India and has been active in studies on ethical issues in health care and Oncology in specific. He has done advanced research training in pharmacogenomics at the University of Delhi, South Campus under the prestigious Indian National Academy of Sciences fellowship.
In nearly three decades-long scientific career, Dr. Baliga has carried out studies in the areas of cancer epidemiology, cancer prevention, radiation-modulation, Onco-psychology, cancer ethics, cancer education, health economics, and pharmacovigilance. He has published around 175 scientific articles in national and international journals and 85 textbook chapters in the above-said areas, and is in the editorial and review boards of various national and international journals. He was inducted as a fellow in “The International Institute of Organizational Psychological Medicine (IIOPM), Melbourne Australia in 2019 for his work in health and workplace psychology. He has mentored 57 students till date and most of his students are in premier institutes of Europe, USA, and Australia.
Dr. Suresh Rao the director of Mangalore Institute of Oncology, said that Dr. Baliga is today one of the few trained radiobiologists in the world and that his research in the area of radiation/chemo modulation with nutraceutical agents and chronopharmacology are ahead of times, cost-effective and helps cancer patients immensely. Dr. Rao also expressed that MIO has been focusing on research that is important to our local society, with effective integration of Ayurveda and Yoga in post-treatment recovery and that Dr. Baliga’s contribution to the objective and goals of our hospital are important.
