Arunan Skandarajah, Ph.D.


Arunan headshot

Arunan is a Program Officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on the Innovative Technology Solutions team. His portfolio spans Sensing, Imaging, and Machine Learning for Global Health. He makes grants to innovators that utilize these technologies to potentially disrupt how Community Health Workers (CHWs) do their work. These CHWs, often empowered with mobile phones and basic medicines, circulate in communities to find high risk individuals and provide the first line of care where patients cannot make it to a clinic. Arunan also works with a range of BMGF teams on technology-focused grants that solve specific measurement needs in diseases including TB, malaria, and maternal health. Prior to this role, he was a consultant to the malaria program team, developing an end-to-end P. vivax strategy in response to newly available tools and shifting burdens. He has also consulted across the private sector, with clients in diagnostics, pharma, and hospital systems. Arunan completed a PhD in Bioengineering at UC Berkeley where he developed mobile phone-enabled optical measurements for global health. He is passionate about enabling local and micro-entrepreneurs as well as STEAM education for the young and old.