Gyaneshwar P Khare

Gyaneshwar Prasad Khare was born on September 21, 1937 to Bhagwati Prasad and Rajpati Devi in Gorakhpur, UP India. Gyan, the youngest in his family, lost his father at an early age and was raised in Gorakhpur by his loving mother and older brothers and sisters. Gyan attended college at Allahabad University, and went on to study at the Veterinary College in Mathura. While in college, Gyan was a champion badminton player and sportsman. After graduating, Gyan was awarded an Indian Government Scholarship to attend Kansas State University, where he earned his Ph.D. in Microbiology (Virology) with minors in Pathology as well as in Biochemistry, after which he accepted a faculty position at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.

Dr. Khare’s career path from Texas followed two trajectories. One as a researcher and a second as an educator. As a researcher, Dr. Khare's understandings of virology and pathogenesis of the overall disease processes led him to discover a virus that threatened the US potato industry to co-inventing of a US FDA licensed drug RIBAVIRIN for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV). Dr. Khare also holds U.S. patents for the diagnosis of hepatitis B virus and various hormones and metabolites in the blood. Dr. Khare’s techniques have led to the creation of many state-of-art procedures for diagnosis of a number of infectious and non-infectious diseases and microbial contaminants in foods and the work place. His articles have been published in many prestigious journals including Proceedings National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy, and Science to name a few.

As a well-respected scientist, recipient of various research grants and frequently requested lecturer, Dr. Khare's professional travels have taken him to Austria, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Singapore, Taiwan and Sweden. He was invited to lecture and participate in the biotechnology conferences in China by the Chinese Ambassador Program of the People to People International, and to be a part of the HIV team that went to South Africa. He was a member of several organizations including the prestigious Research Honor Society, Sigma Xi. He is also a member of the American Society for Microbiology.

In 1997, Dr. Khare became involved in food safety and began to work with the President Clinton’s food safety initiatives. Dr. Khare’s work with the Clinton Administration led to numerous opportunities to lecture and teach in the industry around the world, but he was most proud of his work with the Clinton Foundation.

In 2004, Dr. Khare was invited to attend the opening of President Bill Clinton’s Library in Little Rock, Arkansas on November 18, 2004 where he was given a brick with his name on it in the Clinton Library Celebration Circle in recognition of his contributions to the Clinton Administration and Clinton Foundation. Dr. Khare continued his work with the Obama Administration.

Over the past few years, while in good health, Dr. Khare was involved in developing DNA-based micro-array techniques to diagnose several diseases, including cervical cancer as well as in the use of stem cells in gene therapeutics.

As an educator, Dr. Khare served many roles at the Cleveland Chiropractic College in Los Angles from 1977 to 2011. During his time at Cleveland, Dr. Khare served as the Department Chair for seven years and taught a number of different classes preparing his students to become successful chiropractors around the world. Dr. Khare took great pride in teaching his students and enjoyed their friendship after graduation.

On the family side, Dr. Khare married Kamini Khare in Kanpur in 1969. Mr. and Mrs. Khare moved to Pocatello Idaho where their son, Samir was born. The family then moved to Southern California where their daughter, Monika, was born. Dr. Khare and Mrs. Khare did their best to strike a balance between raising their American children and preserving Indian traditions. In the early 80’s Dr. and Mrs. Khare were founding members of the India Association of Orange County and they enjoyed spending time with their new extended family of Indian compatriots who had, like them, relocated to Southern California. Dr. Khare enjoyed sharing with his family his passions for sports, the outdoors and traveling while pursuing his professional endeavors.

Dr. Khare is survived by Samir, Monika, his former wife Kamini Khare, his grandsons Aidan and Henry and his siblings in India. He was also loved and respected by his many former students, colleagues and friends with whom he has shared his passion for science and enjoyment of life.