Dr. Sanjay Kumar Joins as Director of CSIR-IHBT
5 Dariya News (Manoj Rattan)
Palampur 11-Jun-2015
Dr. Sanjay Kumar joins as regular Director of CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur. The post was lying vacant since the retirement of Dr. P.S. Ahuja who superannuated as DG of the Council and Director of this Institute on 31.12.2015. In the meanwhile Dr. Anil Sood was assigned the charge of Acting Director and subsequently after his retirement in April this year the charge of the post was with Dr. Girish Sahani, the Director of CSIR-IMT, Chandigarh.
An expert in the field of plant adaptation including climate change biology, metabolic engineering of secondary metabolites and bioprospecting genes and enzymes, Dr. Sanjay has an excellent academic and professional record. After obtaining Master’s degrees in agriculture from G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, he pursued Ph.D. from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. He started his career as Junior Scientist in this Institute (CSIR-IHBT) in 1990 and presently serving as Senior Principal Scientist.
He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and The Crop Improvement Society of India. Very recently he received the prestigious VASVIK (Vividhlaxi Audyogik Samshodhan Vikas Kendra) Industrial Research Award 2013 for Agricultural Science and Technology. In 1995 he was decorated with Young Scientist Award by Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi for his work on thermogenesis in plants-implications in stress, ripening and senescence. Other prestigious award and fellowships includes Certificate of Merit in CSIR Leadership Programme, International Research Associateship under Ecogen project, funded by Targetted Excellence at Kansas State University in USA, DBT Overseas Associateship 2001 to carry out advanced research at Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, UK in 2003 and BOYSCAST in 1994-95.
His key contributions to industry include production of unique autoclavable superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme which finds application in cosmetic, food and medical industry and technology was was transferred last year to M/s Phyto Biotech, Kolkata for Rupees one crore. Earlier also a technology of the kit for isolation of RNA was transferred to a Chennai based company and presently the kit is marketed by Merck.He has guided 16 Ph.D. and 4 M.Sc. students, published 105 research papers, mostly in high impact international journals including Nature Publishing Group journal, and edited a book. He also has 5 patents to his credit besides 8 patents filed.
The major research focus of Dr. Sanjay and his group has been on discovery of a novel carbon fixation pathway; bioprospecting genes, proteins and processes for tolerance under abiotic stresses; deciphering the mechanisms of winter dormancy and drought stress in tea; genetic regulation of catechins, picrosides, steviosides, shikonins and podophyllotoxin biosynthesis and cyanide resistant alternative respiration in water-stressed plants and fruit ripening.He has visited different research Institutes in countries viz., UK, USA, Germany and Australia for advanced scientific projects.