Dr RavindraKhaiwal, Additional Professor of Environment Health, School of Public Health, Post-graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) was awarded the International Visitor Leadership Fellowship in Air Quality by Department of State, United State of America.
International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) is the U.S. Department of State’s oldest and most prestigious professional exchange program and it is provided to the current and emerging leaders in the selected field.. IVLP Fellows are nominated by U.S. Embassies and there is no formal application procedure.
The IVLP fellowship is funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. From India, Dr.Khaiwalwas selected for the IVLP fellowship and visited United States for two weeks to have social, cultural and academic experience.
Dr Khaiwal mentioned that fellowship provided him an opportunity to practically experience rich culture and to interact with the world leaders on air quality management and build scientific collaborations. He added that it was interested learn that how various societies are integrated and work to strengthen the founding principles of United States.
Dr Khaiwal visited several institutes and state-of-the-art laboratoriesin Washington DC, Sacramento and California. He had the opportunity to have intense discussion with experton air pollution and healthand to learn from their experience to exercise best practices. He added that visit will help him to better plan his research, bring innovations and to support science-policy framework to mitigate air pollution and to reducethe burden of premature death and diseasesin India.
Department of States website states that over 300 current and former heads of government and state and many other distinguished world leaders in the public and private sectors have participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program.