Prof Kutubuddin A Molla, Scientist from ICAR-NRRI Odisha, India. Dr. Molla's areas of specialization are CRISPR/Cas tools development, Precise Genome Editing, Base Editing, Genetic Engineering, Transgenesis, Host-pathogen interaction.
His previous positions were: He was Fullbright Visiting Scholar, Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology, Pennsylvania State University, USA (2017-2019). He was the Scientist, Division of Genomic Resources, ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi. He has many publications and book chapters to his credit and is the recipient of many awards and recognitions.

Ginny has been involved in experimental research in plant molecular biology and molecular plant pathology since her days in Indian Agricultural Research Institute,New Delhi as a post graduate student. There she helped develop tomatoes with dual resistance to two different viruses using a single chimeric construct. Her initial tryst with resistance engineering in plants, prompted her to seek admission in plant pathology at the graduate school in Kansas State University, USA. She graduated with honors (magna cum laude) and received her Ph.D. in 2010 under the guidance of distinguished Professor Frank F. White.

During her doctoral studies, she identified a host susceptibility gene in bacterial blight of rice and also showed that knocking out this gene in rice made plants, resistant to bacterial blight. At Central University of Kerala, she is looking at the host pathogen interaction in pomegranate bacterial blight, ginger wilt and bacterial blight of rice at the molecular level. She has 25 original referred articles with cumulative citations of 2150 and is the recipient of approximately 3 crore rupees in research support from various Govt. funding agencies. Two students have completed doctoral studies under her guidance.

Dr Ashok Kumar Singh is an Indian scientist specializing in the field of Plant Genetics and Breeding.  He is currently the director and vice-chancellor of the Indian Agriculture Research Institute, New Delhi. He is well known for his contribution to Basmati rice breeding. He is an alumnus of Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi where he did his bachelor degree and master Program in agriculture with specialisation in plant genetics and breeding. He received a doctorate degree from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi for his research on Rice Breeding.

Dr Ashok has received several awards and recognitions for his services to the society. He is a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi; National academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi and Indian society of Genetics and Plant Breeding, New Delhi. 

He has published more than 120 research articles in international and national journals on rice genetics, molecular breeding and grain quality. Marker Assisted Plant Breeding: Principles and Practices is a book he co-authored with Professor Brahma Deo Singh and published by Springer.

Nagendra Kumar Singh is an Indian agricultural scientist. He is presently a National Professor Dr. B.P. Pal Chair and JC Bose National Fellow at ICAR-National Institute for Plant Biotechnology, Indian Agriculture Research Institute, New Delhi. He is known for his research in the area of plant genomics, genetics, molecular breeding and biotechnology, particularly for his contribution in the decoding of rice, tomato, wheat, pigeon pea, jute and mango genomes and understanding of wheat seed storage proteins and their effect on wheat quality. He has made significant advances in comparative analysis of rice and wheat genomes and mapping of genes for yield, salt tolerance and basmati quality traits in rice. He is one of the highest cited agricultural scientists from India for the last five years.

He has coordinated several large multi-institutional network projects in the area of plant biotechnology and molecular breeding and has developed more than a dozen climate-resilient varieties of rice tolerant to drought, flooding and salinity for cultivation by the Indian farmers.

Singh has worked worldwide with researchers to improve various traits of crops like rice, wheat, pigeonpea and tomato. He has been a part of many national and international research projects in the area of plant biotechnology and genomics.

In 2011 Singh led a group of 31 scientists from all over India and sequenced the pigeon pea genome, it was first time that the genome of a legume was sequenced. The effort was a totally indigenous effort by scientists from ICAR, NRCPB, Banaras Hindu University, Indian Institute of Pulse Research, UAS Dharwad and PDKV Akola. The First Draft of pigeon pea genome sequence was published in J. Plant Biochem Biotechnol.

Dr. Jitendra Kumar is having over twenty years of experiences in academics like teaching, research, training, projects, consulting and academic administrations like HOD, Programme Director, Programme Coordinator, Programme Leader etc. He had served over five years in various firms like Prophecy Technology Gurgaon, Datanet India Pvt. Ltd.  Delhi, Caechet Pharmaceutical Ltd. Bhiwadi, CSC PVT. Ltd. Delhi, and many more at various designation like consultant Technical Analyst, Data Scientist, Statistician, Research Editor etc. Presently, Dr Kumar has been the Sr. Associate Professor of Statistics, Data Science & Analytics at School of Advanced Sciences (SAS), VIT University Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India. Prior to the current assignment, Dr. Kumar had served Amity University Noida, for almost thirteen (13) years at Amity Institute of Applied Sciences (AIAS) and Amity Business School (ABS). Dr. Kumar had also served Amity University, Dubai campus and successfully accomplished some specific task assigned to him related to academic development and academic administration (from March 16, 2013 to May 10, 2013). He had founded and established Department of Statistics, in AIAS, AUUP Noida in July 2012 and started P.G. as well as U.G. Programme in Statistics there. Later he also started PhD Programme in Statistics in AUUP, Noida. His educational qualification is PhD in Statistics, M.Sc. (Statistics), B.Sc. (Honors) Statistics, DPM, DST, CBP, and Six Sigma Green Belt. His alma mater is Bihar National College, Science College, and Department of Statistics, Patna University,  Hindu College & Department of Statistics (University of Delhi), ECIL/ECIT (Electronics Corporation of India Ltd.), NBT (National Book Trust of India) New Delhi, AUBSI, AU etc.

Dr. Kumar has authored and co-authored few books, besides having various national and international research papers to his credit. He is having a wide array of experiences acquired through his passion for research, academics, projects, training programme, Statistical Consulting and ability to excel with functional variations. His strength is practical domain knowledge and application oriented skill set.

His research focus is on application of Scan Statistics and Modeling and simulation in field like Criminology (crime hotspot, crime clustering, etc.), Epidemiology, Bio-statistic’s, Statistical modeling for Forensic Research and Analysis, Statistical Inference, Econometrics, Multivariate Data Analysis, Time Series Analysis, Engineering Statistics and Mathematical Demography.  The subject of interest, which has been taught by him at UG/PG/and PhD level, at different point of time is  Mathematical Statistics, Time Series Analysis, Linear Model and Regression Analysis, Statistical Inference, Multivariate Statistical Analysis, Forensic Statistics, Biostatistics, Statistics for Criminology, Experimental Design/Design of Experiment, SQC , Reliability Theory, Engineering Statistics, Mathematical Demography, Econometrics, Statistical Consulting, Data Mining, OR / Optimization Techniques, Actuarial statistics, Research Methodology, Q.T.,  Business Statistics, Matrix Algebra/Linear Algebra, Numerical Methods/Analysis, Marketing Research/ Business Research, Statistics for Management, Management Sciences, TQM and Six Sigma, Operations Management, Inventory and Queueing Model, Decision Sciences, Probability Theory,  Computational Statistics ( MS Excel, Minitab, SaTscan, MS Solver, SPSS, SAS, R, Matlab, Eviews, Python etc.) and Data Science.

As a Head, Department of Statistics, AIAS, AUUP, Noida for around five years, he had acquired and developed substantial skill on academic development & administration. He has been the member of various academics & research committees at AUUP, Noida,  like member faculty interview panel, SRC, DRC, and FRC, BoS, PRC, CRC, AAB, Academic Council, NTCC Institutional Committee, University Moderation Board, Institutional IQAC committee, Head Statistics Stream, member industry and corporate interaction committee and many more. He had an opportunity to chair many of the committee’s listed above at different point of time.He has guided over 200 student dissertations and helped more than 20 PhD research scholars towards their thesis work. Presently, he is the co-guide of two research scholars, who are pursuing PhD programme in AUUP,Noida. He handled many projects successfully.

Dr. Kumar is presently the life time member of various national and international organizations, associations, and scientific bodies / societies of repute.

Dr. Bing Yang is a professor in the Division of Plant Sciences at the University of Missouri - Columbia, and a member and Principal Investigator at Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis. He received PhD degree in plant pathology at Kansas State University. Yang’s research areas include developing and applying gene editing tool kits for basic understanding of disease biology of crops, as well as for genetically engineering of crop plants with improved traits. Specifically, his group has developed a suite of tool sets for high-efficiency genome editing in crop plants such as rice, maize, wheat, sorghum and soybean. His research also focuses on basic understanding of host susceptibility/resistance to bacterial infection and using genome editing tools to engineer disease resistant rice varieties.

Girdhar K. Pandey is working as Professor in the Department of Plant Molecular Biology, Delhi University South Campus, New Delhi, India. His group’s research interest is to understand the detail mechanistic interplay of calcium-mediated signal transduction networks in plants under mineral nutrient deficiency, biotic and abiotic stresses.

Dr Arvind Kapur is engaged with the Sustainable Agriculture Division of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) as its Distinguished Fellow.

Prior to joining TERI, Dr Arvind Kapur was General Manager of Proagro- PGS, a joint venture of leading Biotechnology Company of Europe, held position of Managing Director of Nunhems India and started the operations of vegetable seeds of the Global company of Netherland, also held the position of Managing Director of Acsen HyVeg P Ltd where he started the operation of cereals in HyVeg brand and established operations.

Dr Kapur has diverse experience of over 35 years in vegetable seed sector with a thorough understanding of the agricultural trends and challenges. He has been conferred with the prestigious award from IEDRA - The Bhartiya Udyog Ratan Award in 2006 and 2015 and has many other awards and certifications to his credit.

Dr. Mukesh Jain is currently a Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. Trained as molecular biologist, he has worked extensively in the area of Plant Genomics, Biotechnology and Computational Biology, and published more than 100 articles in international refereed journals of high repute and impact factor with about 8000 citations. 
Prof. Jain has made significant contribution in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying various abiotic stress responses and seed development, and identified several novel key candidate genes and pathways involved in these agronomic traits. 
For his scientific contributions, Dr. Jain has been honored with several awards. He is a Fellow of National Academy of Sciences India, Allahabad and National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi. He has been honored with Tata Innovation Fellowship, National Bioscience Award, NASI-SCOPUS Young Scientist Award, Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award, and several young scientist awards from different national academies. Dr. Jain is serving on the editorial board of reputed international journals, such as Frontiers in Plant Science, Scientific Reports, Peer J and PLoS ONE. 
Dr. Jain’s current research interests include understanding of epigenetic and chromatin-level regulation of abiotic stress responses and seed development in crop plants using integrated multi-omics and systems biology approaches.

Dr. Siddharth Tiwari has specialization In Plant Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering. His current area of Research is in “Metabolic engineering of staple crops (banana and wheat) for nutritional-enrichment.” He has contributed to the Scientific Advancement under the following:
a] Marker free transformation procedure for wheat and banana will be explored and developed.
b] Gene editing for target banana genes has been initiated for enhancing the synthesis/stability of carotenoids in banana.

He has in total 28 Publications recognized for his extraordinary work; also he bags many awards for his immense work and dedication towards Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering.

Senior Scientist of Plant Biochemistry at ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research, Dr. Mangrauthia earned his bachelor\'s degree in Agriculture and Animal Husbandry from C.S.A. University of Agriculture & Technology Kanpur (2001); his master (2004) and doctorate degrees (2008) in Biochemistry from the Indian Agriculture Research Institute New Delhi. He did Postdoc from Purdue University, USA, and also was a visiting scientist at Heinrich Heine University Germany (2019) and at Louisiana State University USA (2020).

He is known for his creative and path-breaking research in the area of hot-pathogen interaction, pathogen genomics, epigenetics, and molecular mechanisms of environmental stresses. His laboratory at Indian Institute of Rice Research developed diagnostic tools for identification of RTBV and RTSV viruses, genome sequencing and genes characterization of RTBV and RTSV, molecular and physiological basis of host-virus interaction, development of virus and fungal resistant plants using RNAi.

His laboratory has also contributed to understand the fundamentals of molecular mechanisms of environmental stresses (high temperature tolerance, low P tolerance) and development and release of tolerant genetic stocks and heat tolerant rice varieties. Currently, Dr Mangrauthia is leading a research program on deployment of genome editing to create improved alleles in popular, elite, and mega rice cultivars of India. He has published 80 research papers, 18 review papers, 20 book chapters and authored 4 books. Dr. Satendra has won several grants of DST, DBT, and ICAR to carry out the research in frontier areas of plant biology. He is reviewer of many high impact journals and editor of Frontiers in Plant Science, BMC Plant Biology, Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology, and Journal of Rice Research.

He is Staff Scientist-V in Dept. of Genetics, Univ. of Delhi South Campus, New Delhi. He has received many Awards and Honors organizations such as DBT, NASI, NAAS. His current area of research is in “Investigating the molecular genetic mechanism of glucosinolates biosynthesis and transport processes in Brassica crops” and in “Intricacies of G-protein signaling in allotetraploid Brassica juncea”. He has 2 patents under his name and received grants from India, US and Europe. He bags around 50 Publications for his excellent work under different topics. He also has contributed his work as in chapters for 2 Books under the headings “Regulation of Glucosinolate Metabolism: From Model Plant Arabidopsi thaliana to Brassica Crops” and “Intellectual Property Rights in Plant Biotechnology: Relevance, Present Status and Future Prospects”.

Geraint Parry is the Executive Officer of the Association of Applied Biologists, a UK-based learned scientific society. The main role of the AAB is to support the global scientific community through the organisation of conferences and workshops with a primary focus on how applied biology feed into agricultural improvement.

Dr Parry is the current President of the Global Plant Council, which is a coalition of plant science organisations. The GPC communicates scientific excellence and represents plant scientists at high-level policy events. Geraint obtained his PhD at the University of Nottingham, conducted postdoctoral research in the USA before returning to Liverpool in the UK to take up a lectureship where his lab studied the developmental significant of the plant nuclear pore complex. Geraint then transitioned to community-facing roles at GARNet and now the AAB.

Dr. Gaurav Zinta is currently working as a Senior Scientist in the Biotechnology Division at CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh. He did his M.Sc. in Biotechnology from Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, H.P. In 2010, Dr. Zinta availed a UA Fellowship to pursue his Ph.D. (2010-2014) from the University of Antwerp, Belgium. In August 2015, he received a PostDoc Fellowship from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) to work with Prof. Jian-Kang Zhu at the Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology, Center of Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, CAS, China.

The key areas of his research interest include plant stress physiology, climate change biology, genome editing, epigenetics, and chemical genetics. The long-term goal of his research is to contribute to global nutrition and food security by bringing stress tolerant and nutritionally rich crops forward. So far, Dr. Zinta has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles and 3 book chapters in top-notch scientific journals, including Nature Communications, PNAS, Global Change Biology, Journal of Experimental Botany, New Phytologist, Plant Cell & Environment, Journal of Hazardous Materials, Biotechnology Advances, Trends in Plant Sciences, etc. He participated in several training courses and conferences across the globe, including Germany, Ireland, Poland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, China etc.

Dr. Zinta is a member of the editorial boards of several scientific journals. For example, he is a Feature Editor for Molecular Plant; Associate Editor for Plant-Environment Interactions, UK, BMC Plant Biology, UK; and CABI Agriculture and Bioscience, UK. He is a Review Editor for Frontiers in Plant Science, and Frontiers in Genetics, Switzerland. Dr. Zinta participates in several science outreach programs.  He was selected as a Plantae Fellow-2019 (American Society of Plant Biology) and eLife Ambassador-2019 to communicate science to a broader audience. Also, he is associated with the Jigyasa – a flagship program of CSIR to connect school students and scientists and extend classroom learning with well-planned research laboratory-based learning.

Dr. Zinta is currently supervising 5 Ph.D. students, 2 PostDocs and 3 Project Research Associates. Also, he is teaching several courses as an Assistant Professor of AsCSIR (Academy of Scientific & Innovative Research). In  2022, Dr. Zinta was awarded Young Scientist Award by the Himalayan Phytopathological Society, H.P.

Dr. Muthamilarasan earned his post-graduate degree in Biotechnology from Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, and got PhD in plant biotechnology from the National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi. During his PhD tenure, Dr. Muthu worked on developing genetic and genomic resources in foxtail millet and demonstrated their usefulness in large-scale genotyping applications, including germplasm characterization, genetic/physical map construction, marker-trait association, genetic diversity analysis and comparative mapping of panicoid species. At the University of Hyderabad, research team is studying several pre-harvest and post-harvest traits in foxtail millet, and his students are extensively involved in field and lab work. In addition, Dr. Muthamilarasan’s team is also studying the role of stress-responsive genes to answer why and how millets can survive harsh climatic conditions. The research team uses next-generation sequencing approaches to decode the genes at transcriptomic and genomic levels to answer scientific questions.

In recognition of his scientific contributions, he has been awarded several national and international awards, such as DBT-Innovative Young Biotechnologist Fellowship (2023), INSA Young Scientist Medal (2018), NASI Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Award (2018), USIEF-Fulbright Alumni Award (2019), Indo-Australian Career Boosting Gold Fellowship (2017), Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellowship (2015), etc. In 2024, he is elected as INSA Young Associate. He is also a Member of the prestigious Indian National Young Academy of Sciences, India. He also serves as Associate Editor of Journal of Plant Physiology, Heliyon (Cell Press), Academic Editor of Plos One, Review Editor of Frontiers in Plant Sciences and Frontiers in Genetics.

As an early-career researcher, Muthamilarasan has secured extra-mural funding to the tune of 250 lakhs from different funding agencies. With all the work on millet genomics done in India, Muthamilarasan has published several research articles, reviews, and popular articles in journals of international repute. The total citation of his publications is 4700+, the h-index is 37, and the i10-index is 60.

In addition to doing science, Dr. Muthu routinely travels to the rural areas of Tamil Nadu to deliver popular lectures in the area of career development to school and college students. His book on ‘Fellowship and funding opportunities for school students’ is popular among educationalists and policymakers.

Wricha was born in Rourkela (Orissa), did schooling in Ranchi (Jharkhand) and graduation from Delhi University in microbiology. Her post-graduation research in life sciences from Jawaharlal Nehru University led to better insight into role of calcium mediated signalling in abiotic stress in pea. PhD from ICGEB, New Delhi, in the area of plant molecular biology involved isolation and characterisation of vacuolar signalling components of Pennisetum glaucum involved in salinity stress.

Post-doctoral research at Hyderabad university focused on TILLING in tomato. While at Cornell University, molecular characterization of 400 O. rufipogon using SSR markers as well as design of first SNP chip in rice using Illumina platform was performed. Alongside, DHR (NADH-dependent dihydrofavonol reductase) promoter and underlying elements from rice were also characterised leading to identification of key cis-acting elements and minimal promoter involved in colour development in rice endosperm.

Since 2009, she has been engaged in teaching and research at India’s first Central Agricultural University. Joined ICRISAT as Principal Scientist and Cluster leader on August 01, 2022.

Trained in molecular biology, she has till date published a total of 112 publications including 53 peer reviewed papers and successfully completed eight projects with funding from various donors. The focus has been to provide long term solutions to problematic soils particularly acid soils using genomic tools where amelioration and amendment measures are not able to offer long lasting solutions. The genetic solutions contemplated are likely to pay dividends in crop improvement of cereals, legumes and oilseeds. Current work involves utilizing reverse and forward genetics tools for candidate gene discovery and creating biotechnological tools and platform technologies for genetic and gene engineering.

Dr. Gopala Krishnan is Head and Principal Scientist (Rice Breeding) at Division of Genetics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. 

He has made significant contributions towards basic and applied research in rice genetics and molecular breeding through development and release of 18 rice varieties including 13 Basmati rice varieties, Improved PB 1, PB 1509, PB 1609, PB 1637, PB 1728 and PB 1718, export of which earns about 36500 crores rupees in 2022-2023. Fifteen rice varieties including Improved PB 1, PB 1609, PB 1637, PB 1718, PB 1728, PB 1847, PB 1885, PB 1886, PB 1979, PB 1985, PB 1882, Pusa 1592, Pusa 1612, Pusa Samba 1850, Pusa Samba 1853 have been developed through integration of molecular breeding.

He has developed genomic resources, high-throughput screening technique and identified sources of Bakanae resistance, mapped QTLs governing bakanae resistance and grain quality, mined a novel allele of GS3, ALS, deciphered marker-haplotype association for salt tolerance, developed and validated a co-dominant marker for blast resistance gene, Pi9 in rice. He has developed and registered thirteen unique genetic stocks in guar, mung bean and rice.

Dr. Gopala Krishnan has published 161 research papers, 25 book chapters. He is involved in teaching three courses and guided 10 MSc and 3 PhD students as Chairman and 92 post graduate students as member of advisory committee.

He has been honored with Lal Bahadur Shastri Outstanding Young Scientist Award (For Crop and Horticultural Sciences) by ICAR, New Delhi, 2015; National recognition certificate for Basmati rice variety development by ICAR, New Delhi, 2009; Nanaji Deshmukh ICAR award for outstanding interdisciplinary team research in agricultural and allied sciences 2021; Dr. R. S. Paroda Young Scientist Award by ISPGR, New Delhi, 2014; Dr. P.N. Bahl Biennium Award by ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, 2014-15 and BOYSCAST Fellow 2010 by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

He is the fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi; Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding, New Delhi; Indian Society of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi; Association of Rice Research Workers, Cuttack and was selected as an Associate of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi.

Prof Soora Naresh Kumar is Head and Principal Scientist at the Centre for Environment Science and Climate Resilient Agriculture (now Division of Environmental Sciences), ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India with over 28 years of research experience. Significant research contributions include assessment of impacts, adaptation gains and vulnerability of 12 major crops to climate change in India and evidence creation of climate change adaptation gains in farmers’ fields in several states. He is leading the InfoCrop (a process based dynamic simulation model) modelling group and is involved in AgMIP since its inception in 2011 as a member of AgMIP-wheat, rice, maize and potato pilot groups. He has developed models for perennials (coconut, grape) and annual crops (green gram, kidney bean and vegetable crops).

He is the Government of India as well as IPCC Expert Reviewer for IPCC reports. Currently leading the National Facility for Capacity Building on Simulation Modelling in Agriculture; National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project at IARI (Under National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture); Task Force -Agriculture National Network project under Notational Mission for Sustaining Himalayan Ecosystems and, a Govt of India project on assessments on Loss, Damage, Impact and Adaptation of Agriculture for India’s National Communications to United Nations Framework convention on Climate Change under in Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change. He is also expert member in Bureau of Indian Standards, TSC of National Implementation Plan for POPs, Expert Team Member of World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Task Team on Climate and Agricultural Modelling for Sustainable Agriculture, WMO, Geneva (2019-2021); Expert Member of Global Steering Council of AgMIP project as well as in several DST, ICAR and CSIR committees. He published over 140 research papers in high impact journals, copyrights, developed technologies, concepts and contributed to release of a coconut variety, and is recognized Globally and at National level.

Dr Sharma obtained his doctoral degree in plant pathology from YS Parmar University of Horticulture & Forestry, Solan (HP) and started his career as Assistant Professor at GB Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand. Later, he joined ICAR-Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla as Senior Scientist in 2009. His major fields of interest are population biology, epidemiology, diagnosis and management of potato pathogens. In recognition of his research contribution, Dr Sharma was honoured with Young Scientist Award by Hill Society of Agriculture, Uttarakhand; IPA Gold Medals by Indian Potato Association, Shimla and Best Worker Award (Scientific category) by ICAR-CPRI, Shimla.

His team has been conferred with ICAR Research Award for Outstanding Interdisciplinary Research in Agricultural & Allied Sciences 2015-16 (Crop & Horticultural Sciences) for research on “Forecasting for Management of Late Blight of Potato”, and IPA-Kaushalya Sikka Memorial Award (2013-17) by Indian Potato Association, Shimla. As a pathologist, he has contributed in development of late blight resistant cultivar Kufri Karan, Kufri Sukhyati and Kufri Kesar. Besides, he has also contributed in identification and registration of 14 elite germplasm possessing late blight resistance. Dr Sharma is actively working for boosting potato export by identifying pest free areas to establish potato export zones, testing consignments and certifying quality planting material.

He is a Fellow of Indian Society of Hill Agriculture, Uttarakhand; Indian Potato Association, Shimla; Indian Society of Plant Pathologists, Ludhiana, and Indian Phytopathological Society, New Delhi. Dr Sharma is a member of various committees at national level. He has over 150 research papers, book chapters, review papers, technical bulletins and three books to his credit. He has served Indian Potato Association (IPA) as Councilor, Treasurer, Joint Secretary and serving Indian Potato Association (IPA) as Secretary and Hill Society of Agriculture as Joint Secretary.

Dr. Rohini Sreevathsa completed her Ph.D from Chemistry (Biochemistry) Department, Bangalore University in 2003.  Simultaneously, she worked as a Research fellow in the Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. During this tenure, she developed a novel tissue culture-independent Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated in planta transformation protocol for the development of transgenics in recalcitrant species.

Her expertise in transgenics won her the DST-Young scientist fast track project in 2004, which she implemented at the University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bangalore. Further, she continued to work as a Research Scientist and was actively involved in the development of several crop improvement programmes for both biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. Presently, she is working as a Principal Scientist at ICAR-NIPB, New Delhi. Her main area of research is to develop pod borer resistance in pigeon pea by both transgenic approach as well as exploitation of pigeonpea wild relatives.

Vetriventhan Mani is a Genetic Resources Scientist, in the Genebank at International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), based in Hyderabad, India.  He has about 12 years of experience in the plant genetic resources. He obtained his PhD in Plant Breeding and Genetics from TNAU, Tamil Nadu, India. He works on germplasm curation of sorghum, pearl millet and six small millets (namely finger millet, foxtail millet, proso millet, kodo millet, little millet and barnyard millet), and related researches for efficient conservation and enhanced utilization of germplasm. His main research focus is to enhance the use of germplasm in crop improvement, such as forming germplasm subsets, germplasm gap identification, characterization, evaluation, identification of promising trait specific germplasm sources, developing genetic and genomic resources etc. Prior to joining ICRISAT, he worked as Scientist (Plant Breeding) for about two years at Directorate of Seed Research, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Uttar Pradesh, India. He has over 100 publications including research papers, reviews, and book chapters, and guided 5 MSc and 5 PhD Students, and several interns. He received Dr RS Paroda Promising Young Scientist Award (2023) from the Indian Society of Plant Genetic Resources.

Dr. Debojyoti Chakraborty is presently Senior Scientist at Therapeutic Genome Editing. His lab develops genome editing tools and applies them for identifying, modelling, and correcting disease-causing mutations. His current area of research includes the following:

• Therapeutic Genome Editing for the treatment of genetic disorders
• Engineered Cas systems and their applications in dissecting biological phenomena
• Stem cell derived organoid models for disease modeling

He has many publications in various renowned journals which reflects his immense knowledge and dedication towards Genome Editing.

Prof. K C Bansal, Former Director, NBPGR (ICAR) is known for his contributions in the area of abiotic stress tolerance ranging from basic physiological mechanisms to crop genomics, transgenic development and for promoting utilization of germplasm for crop improvement.