MK Stalin congratulates doc with Tamil roots over inclusion in Biden's COVID-19 task force

CHENNAI: DMK President MK Stalin expressed his happiness on Tuesday over the appointment of a doctor of Tamil descent Celine Gounder to US President-elect Joe Biden's new COVID-19 task force.

"Happy to hear about the appointment of a woman of Tamil origin to this crucial task force. Congratulations & Best wishes," he tweeted.

Celine was born to Raj Gounder from Tamil Nadu who earned a doctorate in Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University in the United States and Nicole Pantanelli. Celine has two sisters Sabine and Stephanie and lives with her husband Grant Wahl in New York City.

She is a renowned infectious diseases specialist, epidemiologist, medical journalist, filmmaker and also the CEO of 'Just Human Productions', an NGO.

Between 1998 and 2012, she studied TB and HIV in South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi, Ethiopia and Brazil. While on the faculty at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Gounder was the Director for Delivery for the Gates Foundation-funded Consortium to Respond Effectively to the AIDS/TB Epidemic, according to her website. People Magazine named her one of the '25 Women Changing the World'.

She is part of the 13-member task force along with Indian-Americans Vivek Murthy and Atul Gawande that will aid the administration in its efforts to contain and mitigate the spread of COVID-19.