Dr. Kaushik Panigrahi - The Indian American Scientist Making India Proud through his Work in USA

India has the largest diaspora population in the world with 18 million people from the country living outside their homeland in 2020. According to a report by the United Nations, which says the UAE, the US and Saudi Arabia host the largest number of migrants from India. Many of these people had gone to foreign lands for higher education and later settled for work. And today each one of them is making the country proud through the incredible work they are doing in foreign lands.

Dr. Kaushik Panigrahi, an Indian born scientist in USA, feels indebted toward his country for all the education he received here from his school days to Master’s Degree. Dr. Panigrahi is an alumnus of Saraswati Shishu Mandir Boxibazar, where he studied till class 4. “The highest class of the school at that time was 4 so I had to move to another school”, recalls Dr. Panigrahi. He was then admitted to Midnapore Collegiate School, where he studied from 5th to 12th standard. After receiving great marks in 12th board examination, Dr. Panigrahi took an admission in the elite Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, Narendrapur, from where he completed his Bachelor’s in Science in Chemistry. He further moved to IIT Madras for a Master’s Degree in Organic Chemistry.  For his Doctorate and Post Doctorate degrees Dr. Panigrahi moved to United States in 2006.

“I earned my PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2014 and Post Doctorate from The University of Chicago”, mentioned Dr. Panigrahi, who has published 5 research papers in various international journals.

After completing his Post Doctorate he started working at Stanford University as a lecturer. Soon after, Dr. Panigrahi joined Fresenius Kabi, as a Senior Scientist. “Fresenius Kabi is a global healthcare company that specializes in lifesaving medicines and technologies for infusion, transfusion and clinical nutrition”, mentioned Dr. Panigrahi. He is presently the Principal Scientist of the Organization where he looks after the analytical method development and validation for drug substance and drug products and follow SOP and other compendial methods (USP, EP, JP) including ICH and FDA guidelines for assay, impurity, and excipient and degradation product determination.

To explain about what his current organization does and the role he plays, Dr. Panigrahi tells, “Take for example that an innovator company brings a drug in the market. Now, once the patent of this drug expire, generic companies can sell this drug at affordable price. I need to do a thorough quality check, purity check, determine the potency of the drug, and stability study of the drug as per the guidelines offered by FDA (United States Food and Drug Administration)”.

Apart from being a hardworking and ingenious scientist, Dr. Panigrahi is also a doting father. He spends considerable time with his wife and daughter, often telling her inspiring stories of India. “My primary school education at Vidya Bharati and then my college education at Ramakrishna Mission have given me the Indian values to move ahead in life. I have learned to respect people and lend a helping hand to those in need, which I also try to teach my child”, mentioned Dr. Panigrahi.

Inspite of staying in the United States for over 15 years now, Dr. Kaushik Panigrahi is still an Indian at heart.