The Centre for Global Mental Health warmly congratulates Professor Abhijit Nadkarni on his promotion to Professor of Global Health Research and on delivering his inaugural lecture at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine on 11 March 2025.
In his lecture, Abhijit told the story of how he became an alcohol and mental health researcher largely by accident—and then stayed long enough for it to look intentional. What began as a sequence of short-term decisions, chance encounters, and “this will only take a few months” commitments slowly escalated into a career involving grants, trials, and a worrying number of meetings. At several critical junctures, serendipity intervened—often disguised as an unexpected opportunity that seemed impolite (or unwise) to refuse.
Using alcohol and mental health research as a running theme, the lecture explores why problems that affect millions of people are routinely misunderstood, under-resourced, or quietly ignored. Abhijit unpacks how research is supposed to influence policy and practice—and why it so often does not. Drawing on experiences from community settings, health systems, and research projects across India and beyond, he illustrates how evidence collides with reality, and occasionally survives. Blending research insights with self-reflection, the lecture offers a candid account of how academic careers actually unfold. It suggests that progress in mental health care relies not only on careful planning and good science, but also on luck, timing, and the ability to recognise when a wrong turn has accidentally led somewhere useful.
The recording of Abhijit’s inaugural lecture is available here.
