Ponduri Venkata Ramana Rao

Who was Ponduri Venkata Ramana Rao?

Ponduri Venkata Ramana Rao was a renowned Microbiologist of Andhra Pradesh, India. He was born at Rajupalem in Ongole district.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the Government Arts College, Rajamundry in 1937 and graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree from Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam in 1944. He was in Army Medical Service between 1944 and 1947 and worked as Regimental Medical Officer and Field Ambulance Officer in the Second World War.

He obtained a Diploma in Public Health from the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Kolkata in 1948 and an M.D. degree in Bacteriology from Andhra Medical College.

He joined the Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad as a Lecturer in Bacteriology in 1953 and was promoted to Professor in 1957. During his 14 years of service in medical college he organized the department of Microbiology and developed into a full fledged postgraduate center with comprehensive research facilities. He travelled on an A.T.C.M. Fellowship in 1958-1959 to Syracuse, New York and Virus Labs in Albany, New York, U.S.A where he worked on Yaws, Endemic typhus and Cholera.²