Rajendra Achyut Badwe

Rajendra Achyut Badwe, is an Indian medical doctor and surgical oncologist. He was honoured by the Government of India, in 2013, by bestowing on him the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for his contributions to the field of medicine. He is the former Director of Tata Memorial Centre, succeeded by Sudeep Gupta

Badwe worked in many institutions of repute before joining Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai as the Head of the Department of Surgical Oncology, he worked at the Toronomon Hospital, Tokyo as a Fellow of the International Society for Diseases of the Oesophagus in 1989 and moved to London and worked as the Registrar and honorary consultant at the Guy's Hospital, King's College London School of Medicine and the Royal Marsden Hospital, till 1992. Some of his researches, such as the one where he subjected 350 women with advanced stages of cancer to chemotherapy are well documented. His studies revealed that the survival rate in cases where surgical procedures are resorted to is almost the same as the cases where only medication was administered and medicines are potent enough to combat breast cancer with the same efficacy as surgery. One of his researches, on the Timing of surgery during the menstrual cycle for operable breast cancer has positive effects on the cancer treatment regimes in the US and the UK.

It is reported that Badwe initiated and implemented the Clinical Research Secretariat for the first time in India. He was also behind the establishment of the Department of Atomic Energy Clinical Trials Centres for multi-centre clinical trials. and the World Health Organization (WHO) and is the head of the Innovation Council for Cancer Research, a Government of India programme.

He has also received many other awards such as the Reach to Recovery International Medal of the International Union Against Cancer (UICC), Joglekar Gold Medal in 1993, C. V. Menon Gold Medal in 1994 and the Life Time Achievement Award in 2010 and the Outstanding Service Award, both of the Indian Nuclear Society.