Dr. Sudin Bhattacharya is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Pharmacology & Toxicology at Michigan State University, where he leads a group that conducts research at the interface of computation and biology. He is a winner of the 2018 Young Investigator Award from the Association of Scientists of Indian Origin of the Society of Toxicology (SOT), as well as the 2018 Edward Carney Award for Predictive Toxicology from the American Society for Cellular and Computational Toxicology. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Dr. Bhattacharya received his doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 2006, and was a postdoctoral fellow at The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences from 2007 to 2009. He has served on the Systemic Injury by Environmental Exposure (SIEE) Study Section at the NIH, and was a co-organizer of the National Academy of Sciences workshop on “The Promise of Single Cell and Single Molecule Analysis Tools to Advance Environmental Health Research.”

Dr. Bhattacharya is author or co-author of over 30 publications including peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. He has been a member of the SOT since 2011 and has served the SOT in the following capacities:

• President-Elect, Michigan-SOT, 2017–2018.
• President, Michigan-SOT, 2018–2019.
• Secretary, Computational Toxicology Specialty Section, 2018–2019.

Dr. Adhithiya Charli is currently working as a Principal Scientist—Toxicology at Biogen, Inc (Cambridge, Massachusetts). As a Principal Scientist, Adhithiya has been involved in several drug development programs ranging over a variety of modalities. He has also contributed to study designing and execution of several IND enabling programs and submissions. Adhithiya has previously worked as a Study Director, at Charles River Laboratories (Horsham, PA) for about three years. As a Study Director, he has conducted several pre-clinical safety assessment studies per regulatory guidelines (US FDA and OECD) and GLP standards in the fields of Juvenile Toxicology, Development and Reproductive Toxicology (DART), Phototoxicology and Cell/Gene Therapy. Prior to joining Charles River Laboratories, we worked as a postdoctoral research associate at Iowa State University in the College of Veterinary Medicine. His work during postdoc primarily focused on early neurodegenerative disease diagnosis strategies using serum and multi-vesicular based biomarker discovery and novel therapeutic targets. This also involved analysis of pre-clinical and clinical samples of neurodegeneration.

Dr. Charli received his doctorate in Toxicology from Iowa State University (Ames, IA) in 2018. His doctoral research was about focused on the mechanistic role of environmental pesticides triggering neuronal toxicity effects, that lead to the etiopathogenesis of Parkinson's disease.

Dr. Charli has several scientific and review article publications in high impact peer reviewed journals and has also co-authored several book chapters. Adding on, he has presented his research in many scientific conferences and his research works has been recognized through several commendable awards including scientific scholarships, research grants, travel awards and best poster/paper awards. Adhithiya also currently serves as a manuscript reviewer for the Toxicological Sciences and ACS Chemical Neuroscience. Adhithiya has been a member of the Society of Toxicology (SOT) since 2013 and American College of Toxicology (ACT) since 2015 and has served as the graduate student representative for several Specialty Sections (BTSS, NTSS, ASIO, etc.,). He currently holds the Associate Member status at the SOT and ACT. In addition, since the beginning of 2022, Adhithiya has been a contributing member representing Biogen, Inc in the BioSafe Committee and Bespoke Gene Therapy Consortium—Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Neera Tewari-Singh is an Associate Professor at the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and an affiliated faculty at the Institute for Integrative Toxicology at Michigan State University. She received her doctoral degree from the School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi but mainly carried out her doctoral research under the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) fellowship at the Institute of Molecular Genetics, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Colorado State University (2003–2006) and then a Research Associate, Instructor and Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Denver (2006–2018). With an extensive background in molecular biology and toxicology, the long-term goal of her research is to pursue basic and translational research to develop countermeasures/ targeted therapies against the chemical threat and environmental exposures that can cause harmful effects/mass casualties as well as long-term inflammatory diseases to the human population. Dr. Tewari-Singh is a principal investigator on funded grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense programs.

Due to her recognition in the field of Toxicology and Medical Chemical Defense, she has been invited to serve as a Dermal Toxicology Expert on the Scientific Advisory Board, National Center for Toxicological Research, US FDA, and to serve on the National Academy of Sciences committee to address specific issues related to strategies to prevent, counter, and respond to chemical terrorism, and identify technical, policy, and resource gaps. Dr. Tewari-Singh serves as an expert volunteer to address critical national issues in this area that will provide unbiased advice to the federal government, other policy and decision makers, and the public. She has extensively published her work (over 50 peer-reviewed publications and reviews) and had been invited to give talks at National and International meetings as well as Academic Institutions. She has received numerous honors and awards including the Society of Toxicology-Association of Scientists of Indian Origin Young Investigator Award, Ocular Toxicology Innovation and Impact Award, and the Dermal Toxicology Best Paper of the Year award.

Dr. Tewari-Singh has developed strong research collaborations, mentors’ postdoctoral fellows, graduate, and undergraduate students, and has demonstrated leadership and service in professional societies and academic institutions. She has been a member of the Society of Toxicology (SOT) since 2008 and has chaired several scientific sessions, participated in mentoring events, and organized and chaired continuing education course in 2019. She has served as a Councilor, President, and Treasurer for the Dermal Toxicology and Ocular Toxicology Specialty Sections, respectively, of the SOT and is currently the Treasurer of the Michigan Chapter of the SOT. She serves on several NIH and the Department of Defense grant review panels, and the Pharmacology and Toxicology department committees and is also the Chairperson, Committee on Research and Graduate Studies for the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Michigan State University. In addition, Dr. Tewari-Singh serves on the editorial boards of toxicology journals like Toxics; Toxicology Mechanisms and Methods; and Cutaneous and Ocular Toxicology.

Dr. Shama Ahmad is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Alabama. She is also a faculty of the Graduate biomedical sciences (GBS) and serves as the Teaching Coordinator in the Department of Anesthesiology at UAB. She is appointed as an Adhoc Scientist in the Gregory Fleming James Fleming Cystic Fibrosis Research Center and the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CTSA) at UAB. She has served as the Chair (2021–2022) and Chair Elect (2020–2021) of Terrorism and Inhalation Disaster (TID) Section of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and is currently the Nomination Committee Chair of the section. At UAB her NIH funded lab/group is involved in investigating mechanism of toxicity of inhaled halogens and developing therapies to mitigate the adverse cardiopulmonary effects caused by such exposures.

Dr. Ahmad received her doctorate in Biotechnology from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh India in the year 1994. After serving as a faculty in the Department of Biochemistry she moved to US in the year 1997 where she joined the Department of Pediatrics at National Jewish Health, Denver CO as a Research Associate where she was bestowed with the Robert J Suslow fellowship to investigate adverse effects on cystic fibrosis (CF) patients of increased ozone and particulates in the atmosphere. She was also awarded a K–12 fellowship from CCTSI University of Colorado Denver, Colorado and was promoted to an Assistant Professor. After serving as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics for 5 years at NJH she was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado Denver soon after which she was recruited to UAB. Besides the above she serves in various NIH, AHA, and DOD study sections and scientific and administrative committees. She also serves on the editorial board of several journals including PLOS ONE and ISRN Pulmonology. As an active SOT member, she has chaired several pulmonary and environmental toxicity sessions and contributed several abstracts and presentation. She has participated in the ASIO general body meetings and gave a talk at the one held in Houston, Texas in 2017. She is very excited to serve in the ASIO of SOT.

Dr. Ashwini Phadnis-Moghe is currently a Principal Scientist at Takeda where she represents nonclinical toxicology on various projects in Gene therapy and Oncology therapeutic areas. Prior to joining Takeda, she has served as the Preclinical and Translational Development Lead at bluebird bio where she worked on the nonclinical strategy for lentiviral gene therapies. She started her industry career at Labcorp Drug Development (formerly, Covance) as a Study Director and an Immunotoxicology Contributing Scientist where she monitored Immunotoxicology studies, evaluated immune-safety data across multiple modalities and therapeutic areas. Dr. Phadnis-Moghe completed her Bachelors’ and Masters’ degree in Microbiology in India and received her dual degree PhD in Genetics and Environmental Toxicology from Michigan State University in 2014. During her postdoctoral research tenure, she worked on a project in collaboration with Dow Chemical Co. Dr. Phadnis-Moghe is currently serving as an editorial board member for the journal Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology. She has been an active member of SOT since 2010 and volunteered in various capacities from small committees to leadership roles within ASIO, ITSS and CRAD at SOT and externally, at HESI-ITC. She has presented over 20 conference abstracts, published 12 peer-reviewed journal articles and has been a recipient of several SOT poster and abstract awards. Dr. Phadnis-Moghe speaks annually in a course on Drug Development at Cornell University and has continually engaged in mentoring and outreach activities in the field of toxicology.

Dr. Aditya D. Joshi, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) in Oklahoma City. He is also a member of a prestigious Harold Hamm Diabetes Center. His independent research program is focused on deciphering role of Aryl hydrocarbon Receptor in environmental toxicology and hepatic diseases. Dr. Joshi received his doctorate in Physiology and Biophysics from the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston and did his postdoctoral training at the Baylor College of Medicine. Before joining the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at OUHSC, Dr. Joshi was an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Dr. Joshi has over 14 years of experience in environmental toxicology, authored more than 20 peer-reviewed articles, and have presented at various national and international toxicology conferences. Dr. Joshi is currently serving on NIDDK/ZDK1 fellowships in digestive diseases and nutrition study section at NIH and has served on molecular biology and genetics study section at the Department of Defense.

Dr. Prajakta Shimpi is the Senior Scientist II, Toxicologist at L'Oréal, USA, where she supports safety evaluation for hair care and other cosmetic products. In her job she is responsible of conducting safety assessment/ risk assessment on raw materials and finished products according to SCCS guidelines and preparing Product Information File (PIF) package per the EU Cosmetics Regulation. She received a doctorate in Pharmacology and Toxicology from University of Rhode Island in 2015 and was a postdoctoral scholar at University of Rhode Island from 2015-2016. She is author/co-author of 5 Publications including peer-reviewed articles. She has been a member of the SOT since 2013 and has received multiples honors and awards at SOT including Colgate-Palmolive Student Award for Research in Alternative Methods, SOT (Society of Toxicology) 2015, Best Oral Presentation, Northeast SOT, 2014, The Molecular and Systems Biology Graduate Student Research Award, SOT 2015, Carl Smith Award for Meritorious Research, Mechanisms Specialty Section, SOT 2015, Dr. Harihara Mehendale Graduate Student Best Abstract Award, Association of Scientists of Indian Origin (ASIO), SOT 2015, Ronald G. Thurman Student Travel Award, Mechanisms Specialty Section, SOT annual meeting, San Diego, CA, March 2015. She is currently the Councilor of Dermal Toxicology Specialty Section.

Dr. Sadiya Bi Shaikh is a Postdoctoral Associate at Department of Environmental Medicine, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York where she is actively involved in multidisciplinary basic and translational research that aims to elucidate mechanisms of cellular senescence using radiation and inhalation toxicology during tissue fibrosis utilizing novel in vitro and in vivo models of chronic inflammatory respiratory diseases emphasizing lung fibrosis and COPD. She also gain extensive experience working on tobacco products. Her long-term career goal is to excel in scholarly research and services with the abreast knowledge and understanding on the role of Interleukin 17A (IL-17A) in regulating the lung fibrinolytic system initiating respiratory injuries that contributes to the pathobiology of chronic inflammatory respiratory diseases using multi-omics approaches. She received a doctorate in Molecular Biology and Proteomics from Yenepoya University in 2020 and was a Postdoctoral Scholar at University of California, Riverside from 2021–2022. Currently, she is a postdoctoral associate at Rahman Lab, at University of Rochester. Dr. Shaikh is an active member of American Thoracic Society and European Respiratory Society. During her PhD, she has been awarded with honorable National and International awards and scholarships. She is author/co-author of 28 Publications including peer-reviewed articles and two provisional patents. Dr. Shaikh serves as a reviewer at peer-reviewed journals like Laboratory Investigation, Drugs and Chemical Toxicology, Aging, Bioengineered, Theranostics, Journal of Pathology. She has been a member of the SOT since 2022 and is looking forward to contributing to the success of SOT. Dr. Shaikhs contributions to toxicology would benefit for professional development and advocate issues of students and postdocs of Indian origin.

Graduate Student Representative

Mr. Rahul Kumar is a graduate student at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. His research interest is to understand the role of the tristetraprolin family of RNA-binding proteins in liver physiology, xenobiotic-induced liver injury, and cancer. He received a bachelor’s in veterinary medicine from CSK Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University, India in 2017 and a master’s in veterinary pathology from Indian Veterinary Research Institute in 2019. Dr. Kumar is actively involved in various scientific societies and presented his research work in the annual meetings of the Society of Toxicology (SOT), the Society of Toxicologic Pathology (STP), and the American College of Toxicology (ACT). He has been a member of SOT and ASIO since 2021 and has volunteered for ASIO Newsletter. He is currently serving as a member of STP’s Newsletter Committee (2023–2024) and ACT’s Communication Committee (2022–2025). In the past, he has served as Treasurer of the Graduate Student Organization (2022–2023). He is an author/co-author of 4 peer-reviewed publications and has received numerous awards from various scientific societies. Dr. Kumar is excited to lead as a Graduate Student Representative in ASIO.