Dr Mario Vaz completed his MBBS at St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore, in 1984. He then spent three years working as a medical officer and field worker in leprosy and tuberculosis at the Emmaus-Swiss Leprosy Project in Palamaner, Andhra Pradesh, fulfilling the rural service bond of St. John’s. He returned to St. John’s Medical College to earn his MD in Physiology in 1992, focusing his research on the regulatory role of the autonomic nervous system in chronic undernutrition.

Following this, Dr Vaz undertook a Fellowship at the Baker Medical Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, for two and a half years. There, he researched the role of the sympathetic nervous system in obesity and obesity-related hypertension. He is currently a professor in the Department of Physiology and a researcher at the St. John’s Research Institute. Additionally, he heads the Division of Health and Humanities at the St. John’s Research Institute and oversees the Maj Gen SL Bhatia Museum of the History of Medicine. His current research interests include the history of medicine and bioethics.