We wish to pay tribute to an esteemed colleague, friend, and deeply respected member of the INTREPID team, Sujit John, who tragically passed away in June 2024.
Sujit was the Research Director at the Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF), one of the four core partner organisations involved in the INTREPID programmes, and he coordinated all of the various research activities relating to INTREPID in Tamil Nadu, India. Sujit has been integral to the work of INTREPID since the inception of INTREPID I in 2010, and he continued to manage this research throughout the five years of INTREPID II, right up until the launch of the current INTREPID III programme.
Sujit’s contribution to the research that the INTREPID team has conducted has been immense, and is impossible to overstate. Without Sujit, the research in Tamil Nadu (India) that SCARF has led would not have been possible. Conducting community-based research about severe mental illness in rural India is not an easy task. It is especially difficult when the goal is to be comprehensive in identifying every individual who experiences psychosis within a catchment area of half a million people, in an area with a pluralistic health system where many go untreated. Sujit took responsibility for recruiting and training research staff, supervising their work, leading the ethical approval process and ensuring that the research was conducted in line with best practice, monitoring data quality, coordinating patient and public involvement, and proactively troubleshooting challenges encountered during fieldwork. Sujit steered the team through the COVID pandemic, as well as through natural disasters, extreme weather and political changes. He took initiative at every stage of the research in identifying potential roadblocks and barriers, and devising productive ways forward. He was resourceful, competent, conscientious, dependable, incredibly efficient, and ever professional, no matter how challenging the circumstances. There are very few people who could do this role well, and Sujit made it look easy, even while juggling multiple other projects at SCARF simultaneously.
Sujit’s work has vastly extended our knowledge of psychosis in India beyond its previous boundaries, which matters not only for informing service delivery and mental health policy in Tamil Nadu and in India more broadly, but also for the global research community’s understanding of the nature of psychosis and how it is experienced by diverse populations across different contexts.
But Sujit’s contribution to the programme went beyond the research activities in Tamil Nadu and his role at SCARF. Sujit was a core member of the international INTREPID team and his role was instrumental in enabling us to work effectively across countries and institutions. Sujit led by example, inspiring us all to do better, and demonstrating what good research management should look like. He was a generous collaborator; he would help others without hesitation, and was always humble and self-effacing. Sujit was a true team player, who was at the heart of the INTREPID partnership, but never looked for personal credit, no matter how fundamental his work was to the programme. Sujit was highly respected and admired by the INTREPID team and our collaborators, across four continents, and he will be missed not just by the SCARF team but by everyone who had the privilege of working with him.
Below are a few reflections on working with Sujit from his colleagues within the INTREPID team.
Prof Craig Morgan, Principal Investigator of INTREPID at King’s College London (UK):
“Sujit’s contributions to INTREPID have been so fundamental – not just the brilliant work, but even more so the warmth, generosity, and kindness that never faltered and that has helped make INTREPID so much more than a research programme.”
Dr Thara, Principal Investigator of INTREPID at SCARF (India):
“I can’t imagine INTREPID without Sujit. He was a fine human being. A great loss to me personally and to SCARF.”
Prof Oye Gureje, Principal Investigator of INTREPID at the University of Ibadan (Nigeria):
“Sujit was a good man, competent and collegial. He will be sorely missed by us all.”
Prof Gerard Hutchinson, Principal Investigator of INTREPID at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine campus (Trinidad):
“I fully appreciated and enjoyed the time Sujit gave to us in the INTREPID programme. He was quiet, effective and always warm, engaging and positive. His dignified and supportive presence will be terribly missed.”
Dr Tessa Roberts, Co-Investigator of INTREPID at Queen Mary University of London (UK):
“I have always enjoyed working with Sujit. He was one of the most competent and professional people I have ever had the pleasure of collaborating with, and I always admired his integrity and honesty. I learned a great deal from him and will miss him as a colleague and as an all-round excellent person.”
Bola Olley, INTREPID study coordinator at the University of Ibadan (Nigeria):
“Sujit had a great ability to explore and his willingness to open up new discussion was great for the team. I knew him as a hardworking person, a motivator, always striving to be at the forefront of the field. He set a great example in achieving tasks for others to follow.”
Dr R Padmavati, Director of SCARF (India):
"Sujit was an excellent project manager. Thanks to Sujit's abilities, the qualitative component of INTREPID - which I was involved in - was a very complete and successful venture. He was extremely organised and had exceptional communication skills that helped everyone to work together effectively to achieve our goals. I really miss him terribly"
Prof Ezra Susser, INTREPID Advisory Board member, Columbia University (USA):
“Like so many others, whenever I met him, I was captivated by Sujit’s remarkable generosity and kindness, which went far above and beyond any obligation or expectation”
Casswina Donald, INTREPID coordinator at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine campus (Trinidad):
“It's difficult to imagine INTREPID without Sujit. He was a remarkably kind, competent and decent human being. I enjoyed working with and learning from him. He will be sorely missed. Although this loss has created a vacuum in INTREPID, his legacy will live on in the many lives he has touched.”
Sujit was the Research Director at the Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF), one of the four core partner organisations involved in the INTREPID programmes, and he coordinated all of the various research activities relating to INTREPID in Tamil Nadu, India. Sujit has been integral to the work of INTREPID since the inception of INTREPID I in 2010, and he continued to manage this research throughout the five years of INTREPID II, right up until the launch of the current INTREPID III programme.
Sujit’s contribution to the research that the INTREPID team has conducted has been immense, and is impossible to overstate. Without Sujit, the research in Tamil Nadu (India) that SCARF has led would not have been possible. Conducting community-based research about severe mental illness in rural India is not an easy task. It is especially difficult when the goal is to be comprehensive in identifying every individual who experiences psychosis within a catchment area of half a million people, in an area with a pluralistic health system where many go untreated. Sujit took responsibility for recruiting and training research staff, supervising their work, leading the ethical approval process and ensuring that the research was conducted in line with best practice, monitoring data quality, coordinating patient and public involvement, and proactively troubleshooting challenges encountered during fieldwork. Sujit steered the team through the COVID pandemic, as well as through natural disasters, extreme weather and political changes. He took initiative at every stage of the research in identifying potential roadblocks and barriers, and devising productive ways forward. He was resourceful, competent, conscientious, dependable, incredibly efficient, and ever professional, no matter how challenging the circumstances. There are very few people who could do this role well, and Sujit made it look easy, even while juggling multiple other projects at SCARF simultaneously.
Sujit’s work has vastly extended our knowledge of psychosis in India beyond its previous boundaries, which matters not only for informing service delivery and mental health policy in Tamil Nadu and in India more broadly, but also for the global research community’s understanding of the nature of psychosis and how it is experienced by diverse populations across different contexts.
But Sujit’s contribution to the programme went beyond the research activities in Tamil Nadu and his role at SCARF. Sujit was a core member of the international INTREPID team and his role was instrumental in enabling us to work effectively across countries and institutions. Sujit led by example, inspiring us all to do better, and demonstrating what good research management should look like. He was a generous collaborator; he would help others without hesitation, and was always humble and self-effacing. Sujit was a true team player, who was at the heart of the INTREPID partnership, but never looked for personal credit, no matter how fundamental his work was to the programme. Sujit was highly respected and admired by the INTREPID team and our collaborators, across four continents, and he will be missed not just by the SCARF team but by everyone who had the privilege of working with him.
Below are a few reflections on working with Sujit from his colleagues within the INTREPID team.
Prof Craig Morgan, Principal Investigator of INTREPID at King’s College London (UK):
“Sujit’s contributions to INTREPID have been so fundamental – not just the brilliant work, but even more so the warmth, generosity, and kindness that never faltered and that has helped make INTREPID so much more than a research programme.”
Dr Thara, Principal Investigator of INTREPID at SCARF (India):
“I can’t imagine INTREPID without Sujit. He was a fine human being. A great loss to me personally and to SCARF.”
Prof Oye Gureje, Principal Investigator of INTREPID at the University of Ibadan (Nigeria):
“Sujit was a good man, competent and collegial. He will be sorely missed by us all.”
Prof Gerard Hutchinson, Principal Investigator of INTREPID at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine campus (Trinidad):
“I fully appreciated and enjoyed the time Sujit gave to us in the INTREPID programme. He was quiet, effective and always warm, engaging and positive. His dignified and supportive presence will be terribly missed.”
Dr Tessa Roberts, Co-Investigator of INTREPID at Queen Mary University of London (UK):
“I have always enjoyed working with Sujit. He was one of the most competent and professional people I have ever had the pleasure of collaborating with, and I always admired his integrity and honesty. I learned a great deal from him and will miss him as a colleague and as an all-round excellent person.”
Bola Olley, INTREPID study coordinator at the University of Ibadan (Nigeria):
“Sujit had a great ability to explore and his willingness to open up new discussion was great for the team. I knew him as a hardworking person, a motivator, always striving to be at the forefront of the field. He set a great example in achieving tasks for others to follow.”
Dr R Padmavati, Director of SCARF (India):
"Sujit was an excellent project manager. Thanks to Sujit's abilities, the qualitative component of INTREPID - which I was involved in - was a very complete and successful venture. He was extremely organised and had exceptional communication skills that helped everyone to work together effectively to achieve our goals. I really miss him terribly"
Prof Ezra Susser, INTREPID Advisory Board member, Columbia University (USA):
“Like so many others, whenever I met him, I was captivated by Sujit’s remarkable generosity and kindness, which went far above and beyond any obligation or expectation”
Casswina Donald, INTREPID coordinator at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine campus (Trinidad):
“It's difficult to imagine INTREPID without Sujit. He was a remarkably kind, competent and decent human being. I enjoyed working with and learning from him. He will be sorely missed. Although this loss has created a vacuum in INTREPID, his legacy will live on in the many lives he has touched.”