Dr. Anil Sood, Chief Scientist at CSIR-IHBT Palampur has been assigned the charge of Director of the Institute by its parent organisation Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi.Dr Anil Sood is also holding the positions of Head, Division of Biotechnology and Head, Business Development and Marketing Unit of the Institute. Ph. D. from the Punjab University, Chandigarh Dr. Sood has specialization in plant tissue culture. He has been engaged in the area of biotechnology including micropropagation protocols in tea, bamboo, rose, gladiolus, orchids, stevia, ferns, and a number of medicinal plants of higher reaches of Himalaya. He has large number of papers published in national and international reputed journals and guided 9 Ph.D. students. His has research and development contributions in the field of bamboo are enormous and therefore is known as bamboo man of the country. He established large scale nurseries of various species of bamboos including edible one, supplied to different corners of the country and also set up a bamboo museum at the Institute. He facilitated setting up of many tissue culture labs in private and public sectors.
Dr. Sood visited many countries such as Australia, China, Japan, Ethiopia, USA, Belgium, Thailand and South Africa for Technology transfer and as a bamboo expert.He handled all the business negotiations at CSIR-IHBT for collaborations, technology transfers, participation in exhibitions and monitoring of the deliverables for customers satisfaction. Also as Head, of Patent Unit at the Institute for over 17 years, Dr Sood helped scientists and scholars in filing and securing patents both in India and abroad and over 167 patents has been granted to the Institute so far.
He has been the recipient of various award including M/s Usha Vij Memorial award under the aegis of the Orchid Society of India , C.L. Venkatraman Award for Best Original Paper of Society of Plantation Crops, Kasargod, Kerala. Recently, he was awarded for outstanding contribution in Pteridology field by Indian Fern Society. Dr. Sood was selected as a member for the prestigious Khorana Tech-Transfer Programme at Wisconsin University – Madison (USA) during July 20 – August 04, 2013.Besides being Fellow of National Academy of Science, he has been member of numerous scientific associations, committees and societies.