Nathalie Charpak

Nathalie Charpak (born 1955) is a French and Colombian pediatrician. As the founder and director of the Kangaroo Foundation, and associate researcher of the Pontifical Xavierian University, her research focuses on the care of low-birth weight preterm infants and the application of kangaroo mother care. Charpak's work has earned her, and the Kangaroo Foundation, multiple awards, including the Legion of Honour and the Save the Children Healthcare Innovation Award. Her father is Nobel Laureate Georges Charpak.

Early life and education Charpak grew up close to the France-Switzerland border where her father worked at CERN, before moving to Paris to complete her university education. She obtained her medical degree at University of Paris-Sud in 1981, before specializing in tropical and nutritional medicine in 1983 at the Pierre and Marie Curie University, then pediatrics at University of Paris-Sud in 1987.

Career Charpak worked as a medical doctor in several French hospitals before moving to Colombia in 1987. The World Health Organization has recognized the Kangaroo Foundation as the world's leading institution for KMC and asked the foundation to author world guidelines for KMC in 2003.

Publications Charpak has co-authored more than 120 research articles which have been cited more than 2,872 times. She has an h-index of 22 and eight of her papers have been cited more than 100 times each. She has also contributed chapters to eight books, and Kangaroo Babies: A Different Way of Mothering (2006). She has also co-authored several technical publications, including the Kangaroo Mother Care guidelines for the WHO. It gained wide public attention and was covered by more than 50 publications in various countries.

Honors

Charpak won several awards in the 1990s, including the Fundacion San Valentino award in 1999 given by Pope John Paul II. In the 2000s she won more awards like the Colsubsidio Prize and a Best Practices for Global Health Award. In 2010, she won the South-South Cooperation's Excellence Award, followed by multiple achievements in 2013, including a Health Care Innovation Award from GlaxoSmithKline and Save the Children.