Prof Abhaya Indrayan has won the International Best
Researcher Award 2026 from the International
Research Council.
Prof Indrayan was born on 11 November 1945 in a
family of teachers. His grandfather was a headmaster of a high school, and
uncle (Chacha) was a Professor at University of Rhode Island after completing
PhD from Massachusetts of Technology (MIT) and second uncle was Principal
of an Intermediate College. All aunts (Buas) were teachers. However, his father
was arrested from college while student for participation in freedom struggle
and could not complete his education and started a publishing house.
Prof Indrayan is the Founder Professor and Head of the Department of
Biostatistics and Medical Statistics of the Delhi University College of Medical
Sciences. After retiring, he is working as a Biostatistics Consultant at Max
Healthcare with headquarters at New Delhi for the past 12 years, and providing
top class consultancy to medical and health research projects of the medical
super speciality departments in various Max Group of Hospitals, conducting
teaching to the students enrolled for PhD and Master’s courses in various
departments, and carrying out his own research.
Prof Indrayan completed MS and PhD from the Ohio State University in a
record time of three years and an excellent Grade Point Average of 3.88/400
(97%). He is the only biostatistician in India as of 2026 to be honoured with the
fellowship of the Indian Academy of Sciences (of Dr CV Raman fame). He is
also an elected fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences, Indian
Society for Medical Statistics, and Royal Statistical Society.
Prof Indrayan established the first Department of Biostatistics and Medical
Informatics in India – that too in a non-PG medical institution – in the year
1995, which was later emulated by SGPGI (Lucknow) and JIPMER
(Pondicherry). While in this college, he shouldered multiple responsibilities as
Adviser Sports, Convener Computer Committee, Incharge Annual Reports,
Coordinator of the Medical Education Unit, and Convenor of the Souvenir
Committee. He guided the college for issuing payslips to the staff in 1988 (the
first among medical colleges of India and the first among Delhi University
colleges), MEDLARS access and email. He was the officer incharge of the
computerization of all the departments and the library in late eighties and early
nineties.
Prof Indrayan is incessantly working for medicalizing the subject of
biostatistics through his books for medical professionals, developing a
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medically oriented curriculum, statistical guidelines for medical publications,
and methods for personalized statistical medicine. He is respected as the top
biostatistician in the country with more than 300 publications, including many
his own research on medical biostatistics. He conducted first burden of
disease study for the states of India in 2002 and developed national estimates
of diabetes and CVD in India in 2005. Among his breakthrough research are
new and simple statistical methods for credible research, methods for
developing high-performance prediction models, assessment of positive
health at individual level, importance of small samples in medical research, a
comprehensive index of smoking, and a simple method for assessing
qualitative agreement. His perspective on ‘promote heart disease in old age,
stop cancer’ stirred many. He developed models for filariasis, way back in the
year 1971, that made significant contribution ahead of its time. He conceived
pocket health monitor in 1996 with instant multiple functions such as analysis
of blood constituents, ECG, and imaging, which is now becoming a reality.
Prof Indrayan has authored six books, three of which are published in the US
for international audiences, and more than 20 chapters in different books. His
flagship book Medical Biostatistics is internationally acclaimed as ‘perhaps
the most comprehensive book on biostatistics’ and is now undergoing fifth
edition with the CRC Press, Florida. His another book on research methods
has also gone into five editions, indicating its tremendous popularity. He has
completed nearly 40 projects for the World Health Organization, the World
Bank, and the UNAIDS, and has conducted an online course for an
international audience for two decades in collaboration with a US institute.
Prof Indrayan has been a Visiting Faculty at the Ohio State University, a
Visiting Research Scientist at the University of Massachusetts, presented his
work in 17 international conferences, and delivered invited talks at Food and
Drugs Administration (USA), National Center for Health Statistics (USA),
University of Massachusetts (USA), and Hacettepe University (Turkey). He has
travelled to more than 20 countries on academic assignments, besides several
others for personal pleasure.
Prof Indrayan received several awards such as Lifetime Achievement Award,
Blackbuck Pioneer Research Award, Bharat Gaurav Puraskar, Outstanding
Research Award, and Distinguished Scientist Award. He has himself instituted
several awards including at National Academy of Medical Sciences for
significant contribution to clinical epidemiology and biostatistics, at
Epidemiology Foundation of India for work on biostatistics and epidemiology,
at Public Health Foundation of India for best MPH student in Biostatistics, and
at University College of Medical Sciences for the best researcher.
The news of his work has been published from time-to-time in the Times of
India, Amrita Bazar Patrika, the Hindu, and Indian Express. The last on impact
of CoViD in the Indian Express received wide appreciation.