About Us

Dr Susmita Chowdhury - Project Co-ordinator

Susmita's main work is as project co-ordinator and research associate for COGS (Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study), a European Commission-funded international project led by the PHG Foundation. Her contributions to the project focus on developing risk models and exploring the public health implications of prevention strategies that target those at higher risk of cancers of the breast, prostate and ovaries.

Susmita is also currently working on the Foundation's major project to develop a birth defects toolkit for assessing needs in middle and low income countries. In addition to developing, researching and managing new projects she writes scientific reviews, briefing papers and reports as well as articles for journals, newsletters and the PHG Foundation news page. Susmita is also responsible for co-ordinating the education and training activities provided by the Foundation for medical students at the University of Cambridge and for those taking a Masters in Public Health or Epidemiology.

After completion of her medical education Susmita worked for more than two years as a project research physician in the International Centre for Health and Population Research (ICDDR,B) in Dhaka, undertaking field work with under-served children, women and sex workers giving her experience of protocol development and of data and project managment. She was involved in multiple outside community projects including flood aid programmes, fund-raising, donor-blood collection programmes and the setting up of mobile hospital units. In 2009 Susmita graduated as an MPhil in Public Health from the University of Cambridge. She believes that the combination of her international experience, along with her medical and public health background, will enable her to make a strong contribution to the Foundation's work.

Selected recent publication:

• Roy SK, Hossain MJ, Khatun W, Chakraborty B, Chowdhury S, Begum A, Mah-e-Muneer S, Shafique S, Khanam M, Chowdhury R. Zinc supplementation in children with cholera in Bangladesh: randomised controlled trial BMJ (2008) Feb 2;336(7638):266-8

Please visit PHG Foundation’s resources page for a list of our publications and other work by members of our staff.