Banerjee, Hirendra
Nath Banerjee
Dr. Hirendra Nath Banerjee is a professor of Natural Sciences at Elizabeth City State University. He teaches courses in Anatomy and Physiology in addition to doing research and training students in his lab. He researches cancer biology and the environment. Dr. Banerjee has won numerous grants, including three NSF grants and one grant from NASA. He has also won several awards, including a National Research Scholarship Award from the NIH in 1998 and the American Association of Cancer Research award as an outstanding minority cancer researcher in 2006.
“We need strong representation from the minority community in the practice of environmental science.” - Hirendra Nath Banerjee, 2006.
Banerjee, Hirendra Nath, et al. 2018. “Methylation and MicroRNA Profiling to Understand Racial Disparities of Prostate Cancer.” Methods in Molecular Biology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8751-1_15.
Banerjee, Hirendra Nath, et al. 2021. “Efferocytosis and the Story of “Find Me,” “Eat Me,” and “Don’t Eat Me” Signaling in the Tumor Microenvironment.” Tumor Microenvironment: Cellular, Metabolic and Immunologic Interactions, edited by Debabrata Banerjee and Raj K. Tiwari, Springer Cham, Oct. pp. 153–162.
Cagle, Elizabeth, et al. 2023. “Analysis of Differential Gene Expression and Core Canonical Pathways Involved in the Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition of Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells by Ingenuity Pathway Analysis.” Computational Molecular Bioscience, 13(2), pp. 21–34, https://doi.org/10.4236/cmb.2023.132002.
Sengupta, Dipendra C., et al. 2020. “Similarity Studies of Corona Viruses through Chaos Game Representation.” Computational Molecular Bioscience, 10(3) pp. 61–72, https://doi.org/10.4236/cmb.2020.103004.
Hirendra Nath Banerjee has always loved nature. As a child in India, that love manifested through playing outside in the trees. As he grew up, his interest in the outdoors channeled through his work as a biomedical research scientist. “I always knew that I wanted to work in a field that had a positive environmental impact,” Dr. Banerjee says. “That dream guided me.”
Dr. Banerjee earned a Bachelor of Science with honors in zoology from Calcutta University in 1984, followed by a Bachelor’s in Medicine/Surgery from the same school in 1990. He then decided to pursue graduate studies in the U.S. While working on his master’s thesis in molecular biology at Long Island University, Dr. Banerjee got his first job as a research associate at International Flavor and Fragrance R&D. His primary duty was to determine the presence of toxic compounds in flavoring. After two years, he moved on to lab work for International Flavor and Fragrance R&D but ultimately left that position to get his Ph.D. in molecular genetics from Howard University.
After getting his doctorate in 1998, Dr. Banerjee did two postdoctoral fellowships, the first at the Yale Medical School and the second at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston. In 2000, he received what he calls “a good offer” for a faculty position at a largely-minority university, Elizabeth City State University (ECSU). Dr. Banerjee was trained at an HBCU, Howard, “I wanted to give something back by training other minority students,” Banerjee explains (2016). He is currently a full professor at ECSU, where he teaches Anatomy and Physiology in addition to doing research and training students in his lab.
Dr. Banerjee is also a visiting research scientist with the Weber Group at the University of Maryland’s Institute for Bioscience & Biotechnology Research.
In 2018, Dr. Banjerr started researching osteoporosis in microgravity in conjunction with an N.C. Space Grant. He seeks to study the physiological changes that damage human cells in low-gravity situations such as those experienced by NASA astronauts. He used a NASA-approved microgravity chamber to do his research.
Dr. Banerjee has received numerous awards and accolades throughout his career as a student and academic, including a National Research Scholarship Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1998 and the American Association of Cancer Research Award as an outstanding minority cancer researcher in 2006. He has also received grants from both the NIH and NASA. In 2004, Dr. Banerjee was elected department teacher of the year. Despite such honors, Dr. Banerjee says his most significant achievements have been educating and mentoring minority students and working in a field where he can have a positive impact. “My work is about trying to better the environment and the lives of people by doing scientific research,” he says (2016).
Dr. Banerjee has a host of mentors who have influenced his development as a scientist and a person. He has been fortunate to have worked with many prominent scientists and researchers. Among them is Dr. Banerjee’s Ph.D. advisor Dr. S. Dutta, an “excellent mentor” who continues to teach and conduct research at the age of 80 (Banerjee, 2016). Other mentors include Dr. Lawrence DeLucas, the Center for Biophysical Sciences and Engineering Director at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Dr. DeLucas supported Dr. Banerjee and taught him to write grants in his lab, with whom Dr. Banerjee continues to collaborate on projects, including the N.C. Space Grant. He is also mentored by Dr. Günter Blobel, a Nobel prizewinner for his discoveries in hereditary genetics, with whom Dr. Banerjee worked at Rockefeller University. “He inspired me a lot and still does,” Dr. Banerjee notes (2016). Dr. Banerjee was inspired and influenced by several other people, including Dr. S. Das at the University of Calcutta, his master’s advisor Paul Bullen, and Dr. Ronald Blackmon, now the vice chancellor at ECSU. Dr. Banerjee has received additional inspiration from his family: his father-in-law, Dr. B. MookherJee, is a pioneering chemist who developed the patented “living flower technology” used to make perfume. “He taught me how to be a good scientist,” Dr. Banerjee says. “I never work directly under him, but he was a good source of inspiration for me” (2016).
Being a mentor himself is a role that Dr. Banerjee relishes. “I love working with and educating minority students,” he says. He inspired one student to explore molecular biology and switch from entrepreneurship to science; that student now works for the National Institutes of Health. He has also helped several former female students earn summer internships at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Dr. Banerjee proudly notes that throughout his career at ECSU, he has had six students go on to graduate school or work as scientists in government or private agencies. Students he has worked with have gone on to successful careers as pharmacists, doctors, academics, and industry professionals.
Dr. Banerjee’s work promoting minority involvement in the sciences extends beyond ECSU. He is active in the Ronald McNair summer internship program for minority students, teaching students how to do lab research for the past five summers. He is also involved in the National Science Foundation’s MEMAPS program, a training program for minority students interested in scientific research. He regularly sends students to the University of Alabama-Birmingham summer research internship program. He recently joined the Faculty and Student Teams (FAST) program that pairs faculty with students on scientific research projects.
Dr. Banerjee strongly encourages minorities to explore opportunities in the environmental sciences. “There is a great need for minority students to come up and get positions within the field of environmental science as researchers and activists,” he says. “Environmental hazards affect us all, but most especially minorities…they affect us in agriculture, fishing, and other areas. Current calamities are due to environmental change. We’re responsible for neglecting the environment and the results that occur. We need strong representation from the minority community in the practice of environmental science” (2016).
Banerjee, Hirendra. May 19-21, 2016. An investigation on the effect of novel rhenium compounds on breast, porstate, leukemic and brain cancer cell lines. Expert Meeting on Gyencologic Oncology. Elizabeth State University. https://www.hilarispublisher.com/proceedings/an-investigation-on-the-eff…
Interview conducted by Multicultural Environmental Leadership Development Initiative staff. 2016. University of Michigan – School of Natural Resources and Environment. Ann Arbor, MI.