INTRODUCTION OF SECRETARY

It gives me great pleasure to give this introductory note on Dr. U. Meenakshisundaram, the newly elected Secretary of our IAN.

Dr. Meenakshisundaram or UMS, as he is known to all trained in Neurology at the Madras Institute of Neurology and qualified in 19997. He had earlier done his undergraduate and postgraduate course in Medicine at Madurai Medical College.

He served as a faculty at Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute from 1998 to 2016 out of which he was HOD for 5 years. Thereafter he has been a Senior Consultant and Coordinator in Neurology at Apollo Hospitals from 2016 to 2020. He is presently the Director and Consultant in Neurology at the SRM Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital in Chennai.

In these 25 years after qualifying, UMS has been a recipient of several awards and honours the notable ones amongst them being the C.V. Chari Prize and Medal for Neurology in Madras Medical College and Orations at Madras and Stanley Medical Colleges and the Telangana Oration.

He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and Glasgow, American Academy of Neurology and Indian Academy of Neurology.

He has been an invited speaker at many Neuro conferences and gatherings and has been a peer reviewer of International journals apart from serving on the Editorial Board of Polish Journal of Neurology and Neurosurgery.

UMS has a penchant for organising conferences and gatherings, scientific and social, and has donned the role of organising secretary of several national conferences. He has a special interest in Movement Disorders and has conducted several Botox injection workshops around the country and has been the secretary of the MDSI.

On a more personal note I have been associated with him for the past 25 years, ever since he joined as a Postgraduate student in  Neurology and later during his tenure at SRMC & RI and Apollo Hospitals. I have been much impressed by his dynamism and zest for teaching.

Dr. UMS is blessed with a close knit and affectionate family. His wife Dr Umamala K is his classmate in MBBS and chose to stay at home and look after the home affairs rather than pursuing her career in medicine. She supported her husband and son and inspired them to greater heights being a great motivating force. His son Dr Sreenivas UM had a meritorious career as a student in Madras Medical College and is a neurologist presently working as a Senior Registrar in Government Multi Super Speciality hospital in Chennai. His daughter in law, Dr Porrselvi AP is a PhD in Neuropsychology and has her own clinic. UMS is blessed with a granddaughter who happens to be the spark to the family.

UMS possesses the temperament and the ability to serve as the Secretary of the IAN and carry on the good work done by his predecessors and perhaps more, to take the Academy to greater heights with his innovative managerial and organisational skills.

 I am confident that UMS would function as the executive of the IAN members, and would care and cater to the needs of its members.

I wish him well in his new assignment as Secretary of IAN

DR. V. Natarajan MD DM FRCP FAAN FIAN
Prof. Emeritus Neurology,  Tamilnadu Government Dr. MGR Medical University