Dilip Mahalanabis (born November 12th, 1934[1]) is an India biologist. He was the director of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (the ICDDR,B) during the 1970s (at the time of the Bangladesh War). The Centre claims credit for discovering, during the time of Mahalanabis, inexpensive methods oral rehydration therapy (ORT) for the treatment of diarrhea and cholera. The 2006 Prince Mahidol Prize was awarded jointly to Dr. Richard A. Cash of Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. David Nalin and Dr. Mahalanabis.[2] Oral rehydration therapy is an alternative to intravenous rehydration therapy where IVT is not available or feasible. Oral rehydration therapy is calculated by the World Health Organization to have saved the lives of over 60 million persons, and it is still saving millions of people from diarrhea. Dilip Mahalanabis started his own work on oral rehydration therapy in 1966 as a research investigator for Medical Research and Training in Calcutta.
At present, Mahalanabis lives with his wife, Dr. Jayanti Mahalanabis (a high energy physics researcher), in Kolkata, India (Calcutta) and holds the post of Director of Society for Applied Studies (a public post), Kolkata.
In 1994 Mahalanabis was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.