Dr. M. Jeeva Sankar is a pediatrician-neonatologist (DM in Neonatology from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi) and a clinical researcher. He has been serving as the Director of ICMR-NICHR since March 2026. He is on deputation from AIIMS, New Delhi, where he has been on the faculty since 2014, most recently as Professor of Pediatrics (Neonatology).

Dr. Sankar's research centers on neonatal sepsis, newborn care, and evidence synthesis for child health policy. He has led large multicenter studies on the clinical and molecular epidemiology of neonatal sepsis and antimicrobial resistance, enrolling over 30,000 neonates across tertiary care hospitals and district-level newborn care units in India. He is the principal investigator of a multi-institution research program on the biology of neonatal sepsis, conducted in collaboration with six national research institutions, and is leading a stepped-wedge cluster-randomized trial evaluating immediate kangaroo mother care in district hospitals in Chhattisgarh. His studies demonstrated the high burden of multidrug-resistant sepsis in Indian neonates and helped draw national and global attention to antimicrobial resistance as a critical threat to newborn survival. These findings, published in The Lancet Global Health and The BMJ, have informed antimicrobial stewardship efforts across the country.

He has conducted or updated more than 50 systematic reviews to inform WHO guidelines on newborn health, and has synthesized evidence supporting at least eight global WHO recommendations, including guidelines on the management of serious bacterial infections in young infants and umbilical cord care. His evidence synthesis contributed to a change in the WHO's global recommendation on neonatal cord care. He is a member of the WHO Guideline Development Groups for maternal and newborn health and serves on the Technical Advisory Group of the WHO ACTION-III trial on antenatal corticosteroids.

Dr. Sankar has published 194 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has been recognized in the Stanford-Elsevier global database of the top 2% of scientists for six consecutive years (2019-2024). He is an editor of AIIMS Protocols in Neonatology and Co-Chair of the Editorial Group of the NNF Clinical Practice Guidelines. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (India).