Dr. Digamber S. Borgaonkar is presently working in the Laboratory of Neurogenetics, National Institute of Aging, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He retired as a cytogeneticist and educator from the Cytogenetics Laboratory, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Christiana Care Health System (formerly the Medical Center of Delaware). Born in Hyderabad, India in 1932, Dr. Borgaonkar came to the United States in 1959 and was naturalized in 1971. He graduated from Vivek Vardhini High School in 1947, attended Nizam's college and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture from Osmania University in 1953, received a Hyderabad State Scholarship to specialize in cytogenetics and obtained the post-graduate diploma (Assoc. I.A.R.I.) from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi in 1955. He served as a Research Assistant in the Agricultural Department at Hyderabad and Parbhani (1955-1959) and as a Lecturer at the College of Agriculture, Parbhani (1956-1957). Dr. Borgaonkar's interest in human genetics grew from a course that he took on the subject in the spring of 1959 at the University of Minnesota taught by Dr. Sheldon C. Reed, who coined the term "genetic counseling." In 1963, Dr. Borgaonkar was awarded a Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University and served as an Assistant Professor of Biology at University of North Dakota, Grand Forks (1963-1964). Dr. Borgaonkar was a faculty member and head of the chromosome laboratory at Johns Hopkins University (1964-1978), an Associate Professor of Medicine (1972-1978), a lecturer at the Department of Environmental Health (1975-1978); and a Professor of Biological Sciences, Research Scientist, and Director of Research in the Genetics Center at North Texas State University, Denton (1978-1980). In 1980, Dr. Borgaonkar became Director of the Cytogenetics Laboratory at the Medical Center of Delaware (now Christiana Care Health System), Newark (1980 - 1999). Dr. Borgaonkar has also served as a Research Professor of Pediatrics (Medical Genetics) at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, and as an Adjunct Professor of Life and Health Sciences at the University of Delaware. He was a Visiting Scientist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida (1999-2001).
Dr. Borgaonkar considers himself fortunate to have had the idea, that led to this database, at the right time and at the right place. During the first half of 1974, while on the faculty of Johns Hopkins, he was a Visiting Fellow at Yale University, where he discussed his idea to computerize information on abnormal karotypes in an organized fashion (Borgaonkar, Bolling, Partridge, Ruddle, and Mckusick). Significant improvements and changes have been made since then, partly because of his discussions with colleagues during the last quarter century.
Dr. Borgaonkar is the Author of CHROMOSOMAL VARIATION IN MAN: A Catalog of Chromosomal Variants and Anomalies (Eighth Edition); a Co-author of Repository of Human Chromosomal Variants and Anomalies: International Registry of Abnormal Karyotypes, 14th Listing, 1993; Co-author, with G S Pai and R C Lewandowski of Handbook of Chromosomal Syndromes, 2003; a Co-Editor of The First Conference on the Clinical Delineation of Birth Defects, Part V. Phenotypic aspects of Chromosomal Aberrations. Birth Defects: Original Article Series V (No. 5) 1969; a Co-Editor of Advances in Human Genetics and Their Impact on Society, Birth Defects: Original Article Series VIII (No. 4) 1972; and a Co-Editor of Genetic Screening and Counseling: A Multidisciplinary Perspective, 1981. Dr. Borgaonkar is an author and co-author of over 300 publications, an organizer of conferences and symposia, and has lectured in several countries in Europe, Asia and North and South America.