Nimmi Ramanujam

Nirmala (Nimmi) Ramanujam is an Indian-Malaysian-American biomedical engineer whose research focuses on developing accessible technologies for cervical and breast cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment in low-resource settings. She is the Robert W. Carr Professor of Engineering and Professor of Cancer Pharmacology and Global Health at Duke University, where she founded the Center for Global Women's Health Technologies (GWHT) in 2013.

Ramanujam is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, Optica, and the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, and a Fulbright Global Scholar. In 2023, she received the IEEE Biomedical Engineering Technical Field Award. In 2019, she received the Social Impact Abie Award from AnitaB.org.

Early life Ramanujam grew up primarily in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with brief periods in Mysore and Bangalore, India. Her mother, a veena player, introduced her to music at a young age, and Ramanujam began studying the instrument at five. She performed on radio broadcasts and at concerts throughout her school years. In interviews, she has described parallels between her musical training and her approach to engineering, noting that both involve envisioning a solution before developing the technical means to achieve it.

Her best-known invention is the Pocket colposcope, a low-cost portable device for cervical cancer imaging that is included on the World Health Organization's list of recommended devices for cervical cancer screening. A related device, the Callascope, is a speculum-free, self-use imaging tool designed to allow cervical self-screening without a pelvic examination.

Other technologies developed by her research group include the CapCell Scope, a translational microscope designed to identify metabolic biomarkers associated with tumor behavior in breast cancer, and an injectable liquid-based ablation therapy intended as a low-cost alternative to surgery for tumor treatment.

Ramanujam founded Calla Health, a company that commercializes technologies developed at the Center for Global Women's Health Technologies.

WISH consortium Ramanujam leads the Women Inspired Strategies for Health (WISH) consortium, which works to improve cervical cancer prevention in low-resource settings. The consortium develops see-and-treat strategies for areas with limited clinical infrastructure.

She also developed IGNITE, a global education program that integrates design thinking, STEM concepts, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The curriculum has been implemented in more than four countries; projects have included student-designed water purification systems near Lake Atitlán in Guatemala and renewable-energy flashlights in Muhuru Bay, Kenya.

Awards and honors

MIT TR100 Award, 2003 MIT Global Indus Technovator Award, 2005 Department of Defense Era of Hope Scholar Award, 2005 Department of Defense Era of Hope Research Scholar Award, 2009 Fellow, Optical Society of America, 2009 Stansell Research Award, Duke University, 2011 Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, 2012 Fellow, SPIE, 2013 Robert W. Carr Jr. Professor of Engineering, Duke University, 2014 Fellow, National Academy of Inventors, 2017 Fulbright Global Scholar, 2019 WIMIN Leadership Award, World Molecular Imaging Society, 2019 SPIE Biophotonics Technology Innovator Award, 2020 Optica Michael S. Feld Biophotonics Award, 2020 IEEE Biomedical Engineering Award, 2023