Professor Zinia Nujum

Zinia Thajudeen Nujum is Professor and Head of the Department of Community Medicine at Government Medical College, Kollam, Kerala, India and faculty at the School of Public Health, Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS). With over two decades of experience in academia and public health research, she is deeply engaged in teaching, mentorship and implementation science. She teaches Community Medicine to undergraduate and postgraduate medical students and Epidemiology to MSc Clinical Epidemiology and PhD scholars, and serves as an approved PhD guide mentoring doctoral candidates across disciplines. 

Her research integrates infectious disease epidemiology, One Health, and health systems strengthening, with particular expertise in rabies elimination, dengue, tuberculosis, neglected tropical diseases, vaccine effectiveness and economic evaluation of public health interventions. She is Principal Investigator of a WHO South-East Asia Region/TDR Impact Grant on Integrated Bite Case Management within a One Health framework and has led multiple state and national health systems evaluations aimed at improving surveillance and primary health care delivery, with a strong emphasis on equity and translational impact. 

Dr Nujum was an ICMR–DHR International Fellow at the London School of Economics and has collaborated with global partners including LSHTM and the University of Glasgow. She serves as Academic Editor for PLOS ONE, reviews extensively for international journals, and is a recipient of the 2024 RSTMH President’s Award. She has also served as a Global Assessor for RSTMH since 2020.