Prakash Nagarkatti

Prakash Nagarkatti is a scientist, an academic, and a university administrator who served as the Vice President for Research at the University of South Carolina (USC) from 2011 to 2021. He serves as Senior Research Advisor to the President at USC and Carolina Distinguished Professor. His expertise is in the fields of immunology and toxicology. His contributions to science have been recognized through numerous awards, including the Vos Lifetime Career Achievement Award (1996) and the Distinguished Toxicology Scholar Award from the Society of Toxicology (SOT) (2022).  Nagarkatti was elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (2018), a Fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences (2017), and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2012)

Nagarkatti is actively involved in communicating science to the public through his writings in The Conversation, which has been published by numerous media outlets, including Yahoo News, PBS News Hour , and Scientific American , to name a few. He has also been interviewed at several regional and national radio and TV stations and by several newspapers and online websites. Some examples include The State, KYFF TV, WLTX TV, ABC Columbia, Forbes, Science Daily, PBS News Hour, New Scientist, BBC News, and the like. He also served on the COVID-19 vaccine panel for USA Today. Nagarkatti is a strong proponent of geographic equality in federal research funding and has played a vital role in enhancing NSF EPSCoR and NIH IDeA programs. Through his service on a congressionally mandated advisory group to NSF and as Chair of EPSCoR/IDeA Foundation, he successfully advocated for Congress to reduce geographic diversity in federal research funding.

Education
Nagarkatti received his Ph.D. in pathology from Jiwaji University while pursuing research as a Senior Scientist at the Defense Research Development Establishment, Gwalior, India. He came to McMaster University to pursue his post-doctoral studies under the mentorship of Dr. David Clark in 1981. He then moved to the United States to pursue a second post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Alan Kaplan at the University of Kentucky. Nagarkatti received his B.S. degree in Botany and M.S. degree in Medical Microbiology from Karnatak University, Dharwad, India.

Career
Nagarkatti is well known for his research on cannabinoids   and their effect on cancer and immune cells. In addition, he has made seminal discoveries on how environmental and nutritional factors alter immune functions by regulating epigenetic pathways and microbiome Nagarkatti started his independent academic career as a tenure-track assistant professor at Virginia Tech, His research was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with other agencies.

Nagarkatti has provided extensive service regionally and nationally. He has served as a member of numerous NIH Study Sections and Chaired several such NIH review panels. He has served as a Member of the FDA Expert Working Group on Drug-induced vascular injury as well as served on the Scientific Advisory Panel established under section 25(d) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) by the Environmental Protection Agency.

In 2022, Nagarkatti NSF selected him to serve on a National Committee called “Envisioning the Future of NSF,” a subcommittee of the congressionally mandated Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering. At the Society of Toxicology, he helped establish the Special Interest Groups and construct the bylaws for the American Scientists of Indian Origin (ASIO). In 2021, he was elected to serve as the Chair of the SOT Endowment Board. He has also established an Endowment Fund called “Mitzi and Prakash Nagarkatti Research Excellence in Immunotoxicology Award” to assist graduate students or postdoctoral scholars in attending the SOT Annual Meeting and presenting their research.