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Dr. Sonu Goel is an Indian medical doctor and a public health expert, currently serving as Professor at Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health , Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh, India.

He has over 18 years of experience in the public health domain during which he has written more than 140 peer reviewed publications, authored 35 chapters, produced 12 films on national health programs , and edited myriads of public health books (including, one by Oxford University Press and another by Elsevier India).

Dr. Goel is also a visiting faculty of International South-Asia Union SORT IT Course on Operational Research ; Program Director of Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India’s flagship International Public Health Management Development Program (IPHMDP) and Public Health Policy and Management (PHPM) Program ; Vice-Chair of Tobacco Control Section and Chair-MPOWER Research Group of International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases. He is also the Chief Editor of a bi-monthly edition of Tobacco Free Times, as well as Cardio-Health, a quarterly edition. He is currently also presiding as the Director of virtual and dynamic National Resource Centre for Tobacco Control in India (www.rctcpgi.org), which was established under the Bloomberg Initiative (BI) grant. Apart from the aforementioned positions he currently holds, Dr. Goel has held copious and diverse portfolios and positions in the past. He also teaches PhD, M.D, MPH, nursing, students and faculty members, as well as students pursuing Masters in Hospital Administration (MHA). He is also working in the capacity of program coordinator, Post Graduate Diploma in Public Health Management (PGDPHM) at PGIMER, Chandigarh, India.

Early life and education
Dr. Sonu was born in a small village of District Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, to a modest family. His father, recipient of a medal of honour from the then President of India, Giani Zail Singh, served in the Indian Air Force, whereas his mother was a housewife. Being raised by a war veteran who proudly donned his uniform and dedicated his life towards service to the nation, penchant for uniforms and service to mankind was intrinsic to him. Dr. Goel completed the formative years of his education from Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangthan (KVS) School, a CBSE affiliated autonomous institution, also known as ‘Central Schools’. Being an Indian Air Force officer’s proud son, as his family was always on the move to answer the call of duty, Dr. Goel attended KVS School in different cities like Chandigarh, Pune, Sarsawa, Pathankot and Bathinda. Since his early days, Dr. Sonu has been a voracious reader, a habit which not only made him excel in school, but also helped shape his future career. As a student, because of his ever-inquisitive nature and a deep yearning to seek knowledge and growth, Dr.Sonu was always amongst the toppers of his class. Apart from sciences, he was keen on learning the Sanskrit language and about the ancient cultures and traditions. Playing Chess, writing poems and Calligraphy were among his other key interest areas. Dr.Goel chose the noble and prestigious medical profession as a medium to gratify his burning desire to serve the community. He earned his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) from Indra Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India in 1999, and thereafter completed his Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the same college in the year 2003. He later earned his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Health Services Research from Maastricht University, Netherlands, in the year 2020. During his PhD, the topic of his research was “Understanding medical student’s motivation and preferences to select medical studies and work in rural areas in India” , under Professor Dirk Ruwaard, Professor Hans Maarse and Professor Federica Angeli. Dr. Sonu also received 2 year Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resource Management from Symbiosis University, Pune; 1 year certificate course in Health and Family Welfare Management from National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi.

Career
Dr. Sonu Goel joined the esteemed Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, India, in the year 2003 as Senior Resident, and later became Assistant Professor of Health Management in 2008, and currently continues to serve as Professor in the same department. During his tenure at PGIMER, an institute of national eminence under Act of Parliament by Government of India, and ranked no. 2 in the National Indian Ranking Framework (NIRF), he has spearheaded a plethora of projects, ranging from dental health , maternal and child health  , epilepsy , smoking  , to emerging and re-emerging diseases like Plague , H1N1 and SARS to strengthening health care delivery system by improving retention of doctors in rural and remote areas. In between, he joined UNICEF in 2005 and worked for strengthening immunization services in insurgency prone and geographically challenged north-eastern states of India. He joined Dr. R.P Government Medical College, Kangra at Tanda (HP) as a commissioned Assistant Professor in 2006 and worked for two years before joining PGIMER, Chandigarh. Dr.Goel has been passionate about making significant contribution to the society. He worked extensively and unremittingly at the grass root level, wherein he has undertaken a range of projects pertaining to school health, immunization in slums, tobacco control , diseases like epilepsy etc. He has been instrumental in effecting behavioural change, overall improvement in the health profile and upliftment of the standards of living by way of delivering health talks and conducting camps in villages and slum areas to vulnerable and marginalised sections of the society. A special mention needs to be made here of the near impossible and highly courageous project undertaken by Dr. Goel at Sapera Basti (Snake-charmer colonies), Haryana in year 2005, where he was resolute upon working for the marginalized population, despite facing life-threatening challenges. Initially, when Dr. Goel and his team arrived at the aforementioned village, they were welcomed with the pelting of stones as the local population was hostile. But due to his unwavering commitment and a penchant for community service, Dr Goel and his team were able to build rapport and gradually garnered the support and confidence of the village locals. They worked incessantly on strengthening immunization, maternal and child health services and treatment of common illnesses. Thanks to those efforts, today, at the village, the immunization rates and out-patient attendance has increased substantially from negligible levels. At PGIMER, he has also served in the capacity of an adjunct faculty at Department of Hospital Administration and Deputy Medical Superintendent, for 3 ½ years (2008-11), wherein he demonstrated his grassroot-level work in public health by writing policy focused manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals.

COURSE DEVELOPMENT- Dr. Sonu was instrumental in ramping up Public Health Management domestically and globally. He initiated International Public Health Management Development Program (IPHMDP) in 2016, as a result of which his team has trained more than 250 middle and senior level public health managers of 161 ITEC countries in planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating public health program and projects. Furthermore, he was pivotal in developing course curricula of health management courses of Masters of Public Health, Post Graduate Diploma in Public Health Management (PGDPHM) programs in the institution, i.e. PGIMER. He also advanced Tobacco Control in the country by developing a module regarding the same and integrating it in the curriculum of Masters of Public Health, which was later emulated by many institutes across the country.

FIGHT AGAINST TOBACCO - THE JOURNEY: In the initial and formative years of his fight against the use of tobacco, he attended the Global Tobacco Course in Bloomberg’s School of Public Health, USA; 4 international leadership courses under International Management Development Program (IMDP) by International Union against T.B and Lung Diseases; WHO SEARO course on Operational Research, and travelled widely and extensively, both, nationally and internationally to disseminate findings and spread awareness on tobacco control. EFFORTS FINALLY PAYING OFF: In 2013, due to his intervention, resoluteness and persistent efforts, tobacco control was finally integrated in Masters of Public Health curricula at (PGIMER, Chandigarh) (first institute in country to do so). This practice was further emulated by other eminent institutes like JIPMER, Puducherry. Besides, he was also serving as the Chief Editor of ‘Module on Tobacco Control’ for public health professionals, and was able to galvanize top tobacco control experts in writing chapters on the module. He was instrumental in making ‘Punjab Tobacco smoke-free’ due to his sustained efforts which led to an WHO award to Government of Punjab in year 2016.

IMPLEMENTATION OF POLICIES- Apart from his other works and tobacco control interventions, he has extensively analyzed implementation status of smoke free policy in over 20,000 public places spread across 38 districts in India- probably the largest study globally on the subject; and conducted few large scale multi-centric studies in India on assessing compliance to various provisions of Indian tobacco control legislation. Alongside, He is supporting numerous states of the country in developing institutional mechanisms on tobacco control. Currently, he is the Principal Investigator of ‘Scoping study to document evidence on Article 5.3 of FCTC in India’ commissioned by WHO and The Union, South East Asia. He is also the nodal person from India in a South Asian Regional Consortium Centre for Combating Tobacco (SARC-CCT)  for documenting evidence-based information on the tobacco industry in India. As a Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Control grantee (2018-2020 and 2020-2022), he is strengthening institutional mechanisms and supporting enactment of state-level policies for FCTC Article 5.3 in four focused states of India (Odisha, Meghalaya, Telangana and Puducherry) along with developing an accountability system to monitor and stop tobacco industry (TI) interference and documenting it in peer reviewed journals.

Scholarships and other Awards
Dr. Sonu Goel is a recipient of many visiting scholarships by reputed national and international organizations including John Hopkins University-US, Public Health Foundation of India, University Grants Commission, Indian Council of Medical Research and Maastricht University, Netherlands and many awards-including young researcher awards by IAPSM-FORD Foundation , Best Researcher Award by PGIMER, Chandigarh.

At the age of 40 years, he was the youngest in the country to have won 3 prestigious fellowships in public health (Indian Public Health Association, Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine and International Medical Science Academy). Further, he was bestowed with ‘Public Health Excellence of India’ award by Hon. Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India in year 2014. Later in years 2018 and 2019, he was bestowed with Vasudeva Oration and Dr. Harcharan Singh Oration, by Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM).

OTHER ATTACHMENTS- Dr. Sonu has been associated with The Union, South East Asia for more than 10 years, and is also a visiting faculty of International South Asia UNION course on Operational Research. He is the country lead for monitoring tobacco industry interference in a project by South Asia Regional Consortium in Centre for Combating Tobacco (SARC-CCT). Currently, he is presiding as the Vice-Chair of Tobacco Control Section (2019-2022) and also leading MPOWER Research Group of International Union against TB and Lung Diseases (The Union) (2017- onwards).

Awards and Honours

 * Year 2018
 * Best published article of the year, by Medical Journal Armed Forces India.
 * Year 2017
 * Vasudeva Oration, by Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine-North Zone
 * Certificate of Appreciation for high quality published research work in 5th Annual Research Day, by Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh
 * Excellent work for ‘Tobacco Free Punjab’ and ‘Chandigarh Smoke free’, by State Tobacco Control Cells- Punjab and Chandigarh
 * Year 2015
 * Best Paper Award ‘Enhancing Indian Economy through Medical Tourism’, by Panjab University, Chandigarh
 * Fellowship, by Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine
 * Year 2014
 * Excellence in Public Health, by Hon. Health Minister, Government of India
 * Before 2014
 * Visiting scholarship, by Maastricht University, Netherlands (2 months), in 2013.
 * Member, by Membership of National Academy of Medical Sciences (MNAMS), in 2013.
 * Fellowship, by International Medical Sciences Academy, in 2012.
 * Fellowship, by Indian Public Health Association, in 2012.
 * Visiting Fellowship, by John Hopkins School of Public Health, U.S-2011 on Global Tobacco Control (2 weeks), in 2011.
 * Scholarship, by University Grants Commission, in 2011.
 * Best Poster, by XII Annual Conference of Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (North Zone Chapter), in 2008.
 * Young researcher award (epidemiology), by IAPSM-FORD Foundation, in 2006.

Books and Chapters
Dr. Goel believes in the concept, ‘Research to Policy and Practice’. His publications revolve around emerging and operational aspects of public health, not only from perspectives of policy makers but also to the real community. Most of his scientific articles address key issues pertaining to public health management, tobacco control and human resource for health. He received ‘best research paper’ award by PGIMER Chandigarh and also by Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM); Punjab University and at different foras”

Dr. Goel has written a few text books on Public Health pertaining to specific topics on Health Promotion (Singh AJ, Goel S, Jeyashree K. Health Promotion: Need for Public Health Activism. 1st Edition. Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany 2013- Volume 1 & 2), Hospital Administration (Goel S, Gupta A.K, Singh A.J). Hospital Administration-A Problem Solving Approach. 1st Edition. Elsevier Publishers, India 2014), and Tobacco control (Goel S, Singh RJ, Singh A) which are meant for faculty and students of public health, public health administration, community medicine, public health nursing, hospital administration and other related disciplines . He is currently editing a book ‘Essentials of health Management’ by Oxford University Press, which shall be published in year 2021. Besides, he wrote several booklets on diverse public health topics, in easy-to-understand language for community and school students on topics like Epilepsy , Non-communicable Diseases , Tobacco Control, Life style diseases , and food hygiene practices. His first booklet ‘SwasthtyaChalisa’ featuring home-based first-aid management of 40 common illnesses in year 2005 was as an outcome of prestigious Ford Foundation  Grant received by Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM). Besides, he has published various pamphlets, wrote news pieces in leading newspapers and provided television interviews on emerging public health issues.