Padma Venkatasubramanian currently works as Dean, SRM Institute of Science and Technology at Chennai. Earlier she was Prof & Head, School of Integrative Health Sciences, TDU, Bangalore. Her research areas include innovations for affordable health care leveraging traditional knowledge and local resources. Ethnopharmacology, Microbiology, Molecular Biology and Medicinal plants research have been the domains of work to look at safe drinking water, anemia, wellness and nutrition. As one of the Co-PIs, she recently completed an All-India Coordinated Project on Preventing extinction and improving conservation status of threatened plants through application of biotechnological tools'.