Dr Dipika Deka recently relinquished as the Vice Chancellor of Srimanta Sankaradeva University of Health Sciences (SSUHS) on January 31, 2021 and rejoined the AIIMS New Delhi on Monday.
While addressing the SSUHS fraternity during her farewell ceremony, Professor Deka said, “I believe in karma. We must all work to the best of our capabilities in the situation that we find ourselves in without any attachment to the associated positions or perks. Results will follow.”
A gold medallist graduate from Gauhati Medical College in 1977 and MD in Obstetrics & Gynaecology in 1982, Prof. Deka joined SSUHS on April 11, 2019 with a “passion and dream to develop SSUHS as a research and publication campus hub of national and international repute”.
She was the first lady Vice Chancellor appointed by the Assam government.
Highlighting the outgoing VC’s passion towards work, the OSD-cum-deputy controller of examination of SSUHS, Prof. Hareswar Mahanta said, “Prof. Dipika Deka ensured that the university work didn’t suffer even during the impasse that was brought by Covid-19.”
As part of her initiative to streamline PhD programme, she chaired the Research Degree Committee (RDC) Protocol Presentation on August 5, 2020 and organised a continuing medical education (CME) on ‘Writing the Ph.D. Synopsis’, where experts from AIIMS were key resource persons.
During her tenure, she sanctioned 19 research proposals under COVID-19 category and 9 under non-COVID-19 category submitted by the faculty members and students.
She introduced CMEs, workshops, training of teachers, university-invited lecture series, public awareness programmes, including webinars on various topics.
The second SSUHS convocation held on April 11, 2019, under her leadership was a grand affair.
She started Lifetime Achievement Awards to applaud the yeoman services rendered by the senior medical practitioners of this region, donated awards for meritorious students of affiliated colleges/ institutions.
She worked towards the branding of SSUHS by launching a revamped website, started the university newsletter and university English calendar.
SSUHS registrar (in-charge) Dr. Sujit Bordhan said, “She worked for the welfare of all cadres of the University and Colleges/ Institutions affiliated to SSUHS.”
She was the director of AIIMS, Kalyani before joining SSUHS.
At AIIMS New Delhi from 1983 to 2018, she was a former resident, then faculty member and finally chief of the Maternal Fetal Medicine, AIIMS New Delhi and representative of Assam on the Advisory Board, National Medical Commission.
She is the former unit head of the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, AIIMS.
She is a WHO Fellow in Fetal Medicine from Georgetown University, ICMR Senior Sc. Fellow in Fetal Endoscopy from King’s College and Hospital.
Prof Dipika Deka has 255 publications – 144 international and 111 national, 5 books, and 60 chapters in books to her credit.