Dr. Sumati Bhide another eminent scientist from the Cancer Research Institute, TMC who firmly believed in the mandates of IWSA and greatly helped in its establishment. She greatly contributed to the strengthening of IWSA, especially its Science Lab, Library and HCC and was important member to bring up IWSA in the different fields. She was president of IWSA in the years 1989-91.
Dr. Bhide was an MSc from University of Poona and completed DSc from University of Brussels. She worked as the Head, Bio Chemistry Section, Biology Division, Cancer Research Institute, Tata Memorial Centre. Her field of Specialization was Environmental Carcinogenesis.
Dr. Bhide did post-doctoral work at the Department of Pharmacology, Indiana University Medical School and Fells Research Institute, Temple University Medical School, Philadelphia, USA. She was awarded the ICMR Raja Ravi Shersingh of Kalasia award for outstanding research in cancer research in 1969. Later in 1970 she received a fellowship from WHO for further studies. She received the Sandoz Oration Award of ICMR in 1986 for outstanding work in cancer research.
At the Indian Cancer Research Institute (CRI) she pioneered research on pre-cancerous changes induced by tobacco use in human subjects and on the preventive effects of dietary and natural products against cancer. She studied the problem of chemical carcinogenesis with focus on urethane, thioacetamide, isoniazid (an anti-tubercular drug) and arecoline (a component of betel nut). She published her scientific work extensively and was cited around the world on her subject expertise. Her work on the cancer-preventive effects of turmeric was nationally and internationally recognised and she was invited to be the Asia regional editor for the journal Ethnomedicine. After her retirement from Cancer Research Institute, she was the Academic Director of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Swami Prakashanand Ayurvedic Research Centre (SPARC).
Her family has generously donated funds to start the IWSA’s Science Laboratory in the name of their parents Mr. Vasudev Bhide and Dr. Sumati Bhide.