Sandhya Anantharaman

Driven by a passion for making an impact, Sandhya has had an inspirational career playing a major role in the pandemic response and heading the Scientific Support and Development at UK Biocentre.

In only eight months, Sandhya went from being a shift manager to heading a team of scientists due to her intensive experience of high throughput RT PCR, the gold standard test for diagnosing viral diseases.

She played a key role in ramping up tests from 10,000 to 100,000 a day and was also the scientific lead for the development of the high throughput ePCR platform.

Later Sandhya became the Scientific Advisor in the UK Health Security Agency, supporting the implementation of strategic direction for new technologies for SARS-COV-2 testing in healthcare and community settings.

She said: “I feel very grateful for every job and every degree I’ve had that’s aided me to do what I do now. It is very satisfying to play a role in the pandemic and be helpful. I think it is something I can share with my grandchildren and say, this happened in 2020 and I was a small part of it.”

Empower those around you

Sandhya said: “My dad used to say that your success is measured, not by how high you go but by how many people you take to those heights. It motivated my passion to empower people and build teams, not by managing them but by training them and making them better than me.

When there’s a problem, I’m also the most excited person in the room because I really enjoy problem solving”

Speaking fondly about her memories at GCU, Sandhya said: “GCU was my home. I used to finish my work in the lab or my class and then head to the Student Association to have fun creating events like Caley’s Got Talent or Caley Olympics. I would say most of my management and people skills came from these teamworking moments.”