Vijayalakshmi Padmanabhan completed her MBBS from Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, India in 1986. After her internship in Bangalore, she went to PGI Chandigarh for her Pathology training. She then moved to Australia and worked as a Registrar in Pathology in Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia. Her next move was to the US, and she completed her residency in Pathology at Vermont. As a fifth year resident, she worked as a Research fellow in the Department of Experimental Pathology. She then did a fellowship in Cytology at the University of South Carolina.

Vijayalakshmi is now on faculty at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center as an Assistant Professor and Director of Cytopathology. She is also the director of the cytopathology fellowship. Her training in Pathology in three continents Asia, Australia, and America, gives her a unique perspective. She is a much sought after speaker, as her presentations are practical and to the point.

As an enthusiastic and excellent newsletter editor of AIPNA, Viju works hard to enhance communication between members. She has spoken in AIPNA meetings in Bangalore, and is slated to speak again in Indore. She is the Secretary Treasurer of the New Hampshire Society of Pathology and a journal reviewer of Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Acta Cytologica.