KODAGU VIDYALAYA MADIKERI

Prabha was born in Mangalore to parents Justice G.K.Govinda Bhat and Meenakshi Bhat and moved in 1957 to Bangalore. She attended Baldwin Girls High School and graduated in 1964, and in her final year she won the Cariappa Shield and the Baldwin Blue awards awarded to a student best in studies and sports. She excelled at sports, especially field hockey and she loved Biology. She was influenced by her parent during those formative years. Her father was driven to excel in jurisprudence and her mother emphasized education for girls and told her that true freedom for women came with education and financial independence. Her mothers’ fight for India’s freedom was always on top of her mind. She attended Mt. Carmel College and then Christian Medical College, Vellore to study Clinical Microbiology and eared her M.Sc. in 1971. She married Dr.Michael Fernandes, who graduated with his MBBS degree from Vellore and moved to Ghent, Belgium, with $100 dollars on each of them. In Belgium, Prabha worked in immunochemistry. Europe was different from what it is today as it was still reconstructing after the World war, and being Indian, Prabha and Mike were novelties. In late 1972, they moved to Philadelphia, USA. where Prabha worked for her Ph.D. at Thomas Jefferson University. Women Graduate students were still rare those days! In 1975, Prabha was awarded a Ph.D. in Microbiology. She went on to do post-doctoral fellowships at the Fox Chase Cancer Institute and at Temple University. In 1980 she moved to Squibb, her first pharmaceutical company position. She worked on a novel antibiotic with Dr. Richard Sykes as her boss. He has since been knighted and is Sir Richard. Her daughter, Meenakshi Maria, was born in 1981. The name honored both Prabha’s and Mike’s mothers. In 1983, they moved to the Chicago area to join Abbott labs (now Abbvie) and was the manager of Microbiology. While at Abbott, she is credited for developing four new antibiotics. One of which, clarithromycin, is well-known, and was a billion-dollar seller for Abbott. In 1988, they returned to the east coast of the US to live in Princeton, New Jersey, and she went back to work at Squibb, which was soon acquired by Bristol Myers. Prabha broke the glass-ceiling to become a Vice President at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) , a major pharmaceutical company. In 1992, she was awarded the Alumnus of the Year award from Thomas Jefferson University. She remained at BMS until 1997, when she took retirement to start her own biotechnology company. Having had the adventurous taste of starting a company, she went on to be a CEO of three more biotechnology companies, always working in pharmaceuticals but in diverse areas, ranging from schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease to cancer and infectious diseases. In 2016, she retired from full-time work and took on company boards and non-profit advisory positions. She was the Chairperson of the advisory board for GARDP (Global Antibiotic Research and Development Program) in Geneva until 2023, the Chairperson of The National Biodefense Science Board for the US government until 2023, member of the ACTIV working group in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) during the COVID-19 pandemic and remains the Chair of the WHO working groups for the antibiotic and antifungal pipelines. She has published several books and published over 275 peer reviewed scientific papers during her career. In recognition of her achievements, she was bestowed the honorary FIDSA degree by the Infectious Diseases Society of America in 2020.
In 2022, Prabha and her brother Rajaram Bhat decided to sell their ancestral home in Bangalore. Prabha and her brother are of the belief that Indian money should remain in India and should help developmental projects that would benefit the community. They are passionate about education, environment, and animal welfare. Both felt the projects should be in the district of Kodagu, the hometown of their mother where they spent many happy vacation days. This led to the formation of the Justice G.K.Govinda Bhat and Meenakshi Bhat Memorial Trust along with her maternal cousins. The Trust has generously contributed to the complete renovation of the Kodagu Vidyalaya opportunity school. The trust also is contributing to various ongoing developmental projects in Kodagu Vidyalaya.
In Prabha’s semi-retirement, she and Mike lead a quiet life downtown, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a university town. She spoils their two dogs and takes care of the family garden. Their daughter, Dr.Meenakshi Fernandes has a Ph.D. in Economics and has a son. They live in Belgium where she works crafting the policy for the European Parliament.