Field of Study India: Agricultural Sciences

Rajkumar Dhakar

Dr. Rajkumar Dhakar obtained his B.Sc. in agriculture from the College of Agriculture Dhule, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth Rahuri, Maharashtra in 2008. He obtained his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in 2010 and 2020, respectively, from the Division of Agricultural Physics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. Currently, he is a faculty member at IARI. In his doctoral research, Dr. Dhakar focused on developing a novel spatial field scale wheat yield forecasting system through integration of satellite remote sensing derived leaf area index into agroecosystem model along with weather forecast. He has published about 30 research papers in journals of national and international repute. Currently, he is working on projects such as mapping tillage patterns in rice-wheat cropping systems using satellite data, crop yield forecasting, and precision nitrogen management in wheat using smartphone and satellite data.

Dr. Dhakar is a recipient of the ICAR JRF Fellowship (2008), IARI Merit Medal for M.Sc. (2011), CSIR-UGC JRF Fellowship (2010), DST-INSPIRE fellowship (2011), Best M.Sc. thesis award from the Association of Agrometeorologist (2011), IARI Merit Medal for Ph.D. (2021), Best PhD thesis award from the Association of Agrometeorologist (2021), Best Oral Presentation awards from ISRS (2016) and from the Association of Agrometeorologist (2014).

During his Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research fellowship, Dr. Dhakar is assessing general epidemiological models of airborne fungal infections for the prediction of diseases in apples; mapping and detecting diseases through small unmanned aerial system using artificial intelligence techniques; and evaluating economic feasibility of precision fungicide applicators over conventional ones.

Anilkumar Chandrappa

Dr. Anilkumar Chandrappa is a scientist at the ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, who is focused on genetic gains in rice breeding. He graduated from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru. While pursuing his Ph.D., Dr. Chandrappa studied classical genetic studies in chilli, which earned him a university gold medal for outstanding research in 2019. He was a recipient of a national fellowship to support his Ph.D. from the University Grants Commission (UGC), Government of India. His research interests include incorporating novel breeding approaches into traditional breeding methods in order to increase genetic gain in a limited amount of time. He is also interested in understanding the basis of complex traits with quantitative genetic approaches. Currently, he is working on genomics assisted rice breeding for stress resilience and grain traits, which includes utilization of genomic predictions and haplotype-based breeding along with classical breeding approaches.

Dr. Chandrappa’s research during his Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research fellowship is aimed at investigating the impact of targeted recombinations over random recombinations in maximizing genetic gain in crop improvement. In this project, he is tackling significant corollary queries, including: firstly, how targeted recombinations are superior to modulated recombination frequencies across the genome in maximizing genetic gain; and secondly, how the varied number of chromosomes with targeted recombination impact the genetic gain against altered recombination frequencies across the entire genome.

Sanskriti

Ms. Sanskriti is a Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (SPM) fellow at the Agri-Biotechnology Division of National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute (NABI), Mohali, Punjab. She is particularly passionate about changing the perspective of the people of our country regarding genetically modified (GM) crops, making them aware about the potential offered by advanced biotechnological tools and how they can help humanity in the future. She is interested in the cutting-edge technology of CRISPR/Cas, especially because of its potential to generate non-transgenic plants with desired mutations much more quickly than any other breeding practice.

Because of this interest, in her Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship, Sanskriti is experimenting with the potential of sgRNA/Cas ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) to produce precise mutations in protoplasts of major crops and generate whole plants thereof. The plants will be free from any foreign substances because of the short half-life of RNPs, and therefore have a potential for general public acceptance.

Before joining NABI, Sanskriti received both her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Botany from Panjab University, Chandigarh. She received a DST-INSPIRE Scholarship throughout her B.Sc. and M.Sc. programs. She was a gold medallist in her bachelor’s, and ranked 11th in the CSIR-UGC-JRF, 2017. She availed the UGC Junior Research Fellowship till December 2019. From January 2020, she has been working as an Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (SPM) fellow at NABI. Her work has been published in reputed international journals and she has also presented her work in multiple reputed international conferences.

Anjineyulu Kothakota

Dr. Anjineyulu Kothakota, is working as a Scientist in CSIR- National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. He has done his bachelors and master’s in food technology from Andhra Pradesh and Punjab respectively and Ph.D. in Agricultural Processing and Food Engineering from GBPUAT, Uttarakhand. He has a well proven track record of achievements in the field of post-harvest technologies and agri-waste management and has successfully developed technologies for conversion of agricultural residues to biodegradable products. The technology to produce such biodegradable products has so far been transferred to 18 companies.. A vital impact of these products is the reduction of the carbon footprint by 60 % when compared with plastic and paper counterparts, jobs for 5,000 to 7,000 rural workers; and additional income for 100 to 200 farmers for their raw material waste. He has also completed projects worth INR 3 crores from various funding agencies and private multinational companies like ITC Ltd. He has also recipient of several accolades like BRICS Young Scientist award 2023, Kerala State Young Scientist Award-2023, INAE –Young Engineer Award 2022, ICAR-NAAS Young Scientist Award 2021, ICAR-NAAS Associate Award 2023, CSIR Award for Science and Technology Innovations for Rural Development (CAIRD) 2020.

During Fulbright fellowship, he is focusing on the development and optimization non-thermal processing techniques for improvement of biodegradable food packaging materials sourced for U.S. based agri biomass like corn wastes, soybean wastes at South Dakota State University.

Kalyan K. Mondal

Dr. Kalyan K. Mondal is presently working as Joint Director (Research) at the ICAR-National Institute of Biotic Stress Management, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India. Prior to joining ICAR-NIBSM, he worked as Principal Scientist at Division of Plant Pathology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. He worked extensively on the bacterial type-3-secretion-system (T3SS)-effectors and how bacterial pathogens use the effectors to subvert plant immune responses, PTI/ETI. He profiled the T3SS-effectors in two important bacterial pathogens, Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. punicae (Xap) and X. oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) infecting pomegranate and rice. His group identified key effectors (XopF, XopR in Xoo; XopC2, XopL, XopN in Xap) that immensely contribute to suppress plant immune responses. Using Y2H system his team identified the interactor(s) for effectors and further demonstrated that silencing the interactors in host plants led to disease resistance. Dr. Kalyan is a Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship, Dr. Mondal is investigating the TAL effector PthXo2 of Xoo and its functional role in activating OsSWEET15 during blight disease development using CRISPR-Cas editing tools. This work may help understanding OsSWEET-mediated pathogenesis and identify novel targets to counter bacterial blight disease in rice.

Raj Mukhopadhyay

Dr. Raj Mukhopadhyay obtained his bachelor’s degree from Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, West Bengal, in 2012 and a master’s degree from Banaras Hindu University, Uttar Pradesh, in 2014. He received his PhD from ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute in 2018. He is currently working as a s cientist at ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute . His research focused on removal of organic and inorganic contaminants (metals, metalloids and emerging contaminants) from soil and water using surface modified natural clay minerals, biowastes, and nanomaterials. Dr. Mukhopadhyay has published about 25 papers on environmental remediation in journals of national and international repute. He received the IC-IMPACTS (the India-Canada Centre for Innovative Multidisciplinary Partnerships to Accelerate Community Transformation and Sustainability) Summer Institute Award on “Nanotechnologies for Safe & Sustainable Infrastructure, Integrated Water Management and Public Health”, from University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, in 2016 and the Clay Minerals Group Bursary A ward in 2019 from the Clay Minerals Group of Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, UK .

While Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are contaminants of global concern and known as ‘forever chemicals’ due to their extremely persistent nature, development of novel, inexpensive and eco-friendly technologies is the need of the hour to tackle the PFAS issues in water and soil systems. D uring Dr. Mukhopadhyay’s Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship, he is developing engineered clay mineral adsorbents using naturally available clay minerals and biowastes for removing PFAS from contaminated water and reducing PFAS bioavailability to wheat crop, deciphering an inexpensive and green PFAS remediation method.

Basavaprabhu L. Patil

Dr. Basavaprabhu L. Patil is a Principal Scientist (Plant Biotechnology) at ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bengaluru. He did Bachelor’s of Science and Master’s of Science in Agriculture from UAS-Dharwad and Ph.D. (2001-2005) from University of Delhi. During Ph.D. he received a DAAD scholarship to work at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. He did his postdoctoral research (2006-2010) in Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, USA and contributed to the development of Virus Resistant Cassava for Africa. Briefly he worked as Scientist-D, in the DBT’s National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute, Mohali and then he relocated to University of Basel, Switzerland. In 2012, he joined as a Senior Scientist in ICAR-National Institute for Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi. In 2018, he relocated to ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru and continues to work in the area of Plant Virology. During his stint in ICAR, he has been PI for multiple projects funded by DBT, BIRAC, BCIL and ICAR. He has published extensively and is a recognized editor for International Journals, and reviewer for Grant Applications. He has served as an external expert to assess the scientists from CSIR and ICAR. He was honored with the IVS Fellow Award by the Indian Virological Society in 2014 and received EU’s Erasmus Mundus scholarship in 2016. Recently, he was conferred with Prof. B.M. Johri memorial Award, by the Society for Plant Research (India).

During his Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship at the University of California, Davis, Dr. Patil will develop and validate novel Genome Editing Tools for Virus Diagnostics, Functional Genomics and Virus Control.

Amalendu Ghosh

Dr. Amalendu Ghosh is currently working as a Scientist in Advanced Centre for Plant Virology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. He completed his postgraduate (2005-2007) and doctoral degree (2007-2010) in Agricultural Entomology from Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Kalyani, West Bengal with several distinctions. He has been a faculty member at IARI, New Delhi for the past seven years. His main research interest lies in understanding the relationships of insect vectors and plant viruses and developing novel molecules aiming to interrupt the inter-relationships and restrict the spread of diseases. Dr. Ghosh has demonstrated the inhibition of virus transmission by thrips and whitefly using double-stranded RNA and antisense oligos.

Dr. Ghosh has been the recipient of Endeavour Research Fellowship (Australian Government), four Young Scientist Awards, and nine competitive research grants.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Research Fellowship, he aims to carry out targeted gene editing and determine the effects on development, reproduction, embryogenesis, and vector competence of thrips. With his expertise in insect science combined with plant virology, he aims to learn and conduct research with a multidisciplinary approach at the Department of Plant Pathology, Washington State University, Pullman. He wishes to apply the CRISPR/Cas9 system in Thrips palmi (Thysanoptera, Thripidae) to induce sterility thereby reducing the transmission of tospoviruses. This approach will help to develop an eco-friendly tactic that is adaptable to changing climate to manage thrips as a pest and restrict the spread of tospoviruses.

Sudarshan Kumar

Dr. Sudarshan Kumar is working as senior scientist at National Dairy Research Institute Karnal. He is presently engaged in research related to dairy animal health and production. Over the last 10 years, Dr. Kumar has developed skills in proteomics-based approaches to solve the problems of low milk yield, truncated lactation, mastitis and alternatives to antibiotics in dairy animals. He also develops highly sensitive MS-based methods for the determination of residual veterinary drugs, pesticides and adulterant in milk. He is specialized in molecular cloning, protein expression and purification in a wide range of hosts like bacteria, yeast and mammalian cell which are validated for its function in cell culture models. Recently, in recognition of his work, Dr. Kumar has been conferred the fellowship of the prestigious National Academy of Dairy Sciences.

Currently, his research activities are focused on discovering alternatives to antibiotics. Dr. Kumar’s studies revealed that urogenital tract in animal secrets a large number of endogenous peptides which possesses antimicrobial characteristics and thus keep the organ sterile. However, there are challenges in its clinical application.

The Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Scholar Program involving collaboration between NDRI and Oregon State University aims to understand the mechanism of action behind such AMPs. Specifically, the emphasis is on understanding the molecular crosstalk between antimicrobial peptide and bacterial growth during the tussle to survive and to explore the responsive mechanism of bacteria towards AMPs. In the presence of AMPs, bacterial growth is inhibited. But the final outcome of the battle depends on the potency of AMPs and the SOS response of bacteria. For taking AMPs to the clinical stage, it is essential to understand the SOS response of bacteria. Such knowledge not only helps in the selection of a best AMP but also enables devising strategies to combat antimicrobial resistance.

Devidutta Samantaray

Ms. Devidutta Samantaray is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Tirupati. She is working towards unveiling the epigenetic regulation of heat stress response and establishment of plant stress memory. Identification of principal regulators of plant stress response will pave a path towards the development of a feasible system for epigenetic breeding for crop improvement programs.

Ms. Samantaray holds a bachelor’s degree in botany from Nimapara Autonomous College, Puri, Odisha, and a master’s degree in botany from Utkal University, Odisha. She was awarded the Institute of Mathematics and Application scholarship by the Government of Odisha to pursue post-graduation studies in science, mathematics and biotechnology. She has qualified national level competitive exams including Joint CSIR-UGC JRF-NET, ICAR-NET and GATE.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow, Ms. Samantaray is identifying and elucidating the role(s) of small RNAs in regulating transgenerational stress-adaptive phenotypic plasticity in Arabidopsis thaliana. She hopes to be a scientific researcher in the field of plant epigenetics.