Balaji Veeraraghavan is a Professor of Microbiology at Christian Medical College, Vellore, a position he has held since 2008.
His research focuses on antimicrobial resistance, which includes molecular resistance surveillance, evaluation of newer agents and epidemiology of drug-resistant pathogens. He leads a research group with a multifaceted approach to studying and understanding the epidemiology and genomics of pathogens, which helped to put antimicrobial resistance on the map as a major public health concern. Balaji served as a temporary scientific advisory board member for several WHO Committees, including emerging bacterial infectious disease and antimicrobial resistance surveillance.
Balaji is a recipient of the Charles C. Shepard science award for scientific excellence and a member of several organizations, including the global genomic consortium for Klebsiella pneumoniae and Salmonella Typhi/Paratyphi, the Indian Network for Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance (INSAR) under the auspices of WHO–SEARO from its inception, and a steering committee member of AMS Hamied Foundation UK-India AMR Scientific group. He also has a wealth of experience leading the Indian Association of Medical Microbiology, an External Quality Assurance Scheme (IAMM EQAS) for more than 1000 laboratories across India.
He obtained his PhD in basic science from the Christian Medical College, India and a post-doctoral fellowship at Tufts Medical School, Boston, United States. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of the Academy of Medical Sciences. He has published over 410 articles and has an H-index of 37.