New Members

Shri Ajay Kumar Ghosh did his M. Tech in Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology in 1963 from the Department of Chemical Technology, University of Calcutta in 1963, specializing in Oil Technology, comprising Triglycerides, Essential Oils, and Petroleum Oils & Petrochemicals. He worked in multiple segments of industries including the hydrogenation industry and the edible biscuit manufacturing industry. He developed multiple new varieties of biscuits  while he was working in  Britannia Biscuit Company Limited, Kolkata;  Priya gold Biscuits division  of Surya Food & Agro Ltd, Noida, UP; and Sona Biscuits Ltd (Sobisco) , Kolkata. He possesses more than fifty years of hands-on experience in biscuits manufacturing using multiple types of edible material, enzymes, essential oils, antioxidants, food colorants, vitamins and minerals. His expertise is widely acclaimed in India among the biscuits manufacturers.

Dr. Vinod  Prakash  Gupta   did his M Sc (1975) and earned PhD (1982) in Botany from Agra University, Agra. Plant Pathology has been area of his specialization during M Sc. His PhD work was on “Studies on the production of anti-fungal antibiotics from soil actinomycetes and control of some common post-harvest fruit-rots”. He started his career as lecturer in Botany (1977-1985) in colleges affiliated to Agra University and Kumaon University. In1985, he joined the erstwhile National Biotechnology Board as Sr. Scientific Officer in the Dept.of Sc.& Technology, GOI. Subsequently in 1986, he moved to the Department of Biotechnology [DBT], when the department was created under the Ministry of Sc. & Technology. He worked as scientific officer at different levels for around 27 years including more than 11 years as Adviser/ Scientist ‘G’ with the DBT. He superannuated from DBT in January, 2013. In DBT, Dr. Gupta coordinated various Human Resource Development (HRD) and Societal Development programmes, establishment of new National Institute of Plant Genome Research and National Containment-cum-Quarantine Facility for Transgenic Crops. In addition he was actively engaged in the policy formulation, identification of new programmes, and development of research networks, review and funding of programmes in the area of Agriculture/Crop Biotechnology. Dr. Gupta published 6 papers in journals and presented 6 papers on the HRD & Agri-biotechnology Programmes in international workshops and seminars held in other countries.

Dr. Sanjay Nene is a Biochemical Engineer by training with degrees from Herriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, IIT-Delhi and Mumbai University. He started his career as a research Associate in Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd., Pimpri after which he joined Millipore Intertech as a technical consultant. He worked for almost 30 years in National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, where he headed the Biochemical Engineering Group as Chief Scientist. He was also actively associated with Pune University, wherehe taught postgraduate courses in Biotechnology, participated in the design of syllabi in Biotechnologyand was Chairman, Board of Studies, and Biotechnology-Engineering. In his career he was associated with various advisory committees in the Department of Science &Technology, and Department of Biotechnology (Ministry of Science &Technology, GOI). He was a member of the NCL Research Council and is currently on the Governing Body of CIAB, Mohali and Research Council of NEIST, Jorhat

During his career at NCL he worked mainly on Industrial projects. He was twice awarded the Best Technology award by NCL Foundation. He guided several M. Tech and PhD students and has more than 35 international papers and 9 patents.

After retirement in 2014, he started a company, Innovation Biologicals Pvt. Ltd, incubated at NCL Innovation Park, Pune, where as CEO, he heads a team that works on Bioprocess development for industrial customers.

Dr. Kishore M. Paknikar, former Director and Professor Agharkar Chair, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune. Currently Distinguished Visiting Professor at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai and Visiting Professor at Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur and Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai.

Research area: applications of nanotechnology in biology, medicine, diagnostics, environment and agriculture.

PhD in Microbiology, University of Pune, Post-doctoral training, Institute of Microbiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia and St. Andrews University, UK.

Visiting Professor, Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg, France and Wayne State University, School of Medicine, Detroit, USA; Advisor, National Nanotechnology Centre, Bangkok, Thailand; Member, Board of Directors, Nano Cutting Edge Technology Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai.

Chair and Expert member, various committees of Niti Ayog, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

Recipient of Professor JV Bhat Memorial Oration award (Manipal University), Industrial Medal Award (Biotech Research Society), Fellow, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Association of Microbiologists of India, Biotech Research Society of India and Maharashtra Academy of Sciences.

Published >150 research papers 30 book chapters and 1 book (>10000 citations, ‘h’ index of 44). Inventor in 36 granted national/international patents. Supervised 39 PhD students.

Dr. Amulya K Panda has B. Tech degree from HBTI, Kanpur and master degree in chemical engineering from IIT Madras on 1986, He did Ph. D from IIT Delhi and worked at National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi from 1990 to 2021. He retired from NII as its Director on May 2021. He was a visiting scientist at the Depts. of Chemical Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, USA.  He has published the very first report on high cell density fermentation studies from India in 1995 and is an expert on refolding of proteins from inclusion bodies. Because of his contribution on applications of chemical engineering principles to biological processes, he was awarded the Young Asian Biotechnologist Prize from the Society for Biotechnology, Japan, for the year 2004.His other area of research is on vaccine delivery using biodegradable polymeric nanoparticles and Immunoengineering. He has published 150 research papers, 12 book chapters and has guided 25 Ph. D students and around 100 master students. He has the credentials of generating highest number of IPRs (35 pending/granted patents) while working at National Institute of Immunology (working since 1990).He was the past President of the Association of Microbiologist of India (AMI) in 2017. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, (FRSC) since 2020.

Dr. R.K. Jain is presently the Emeritus Scientist (ICAR) at IARI, New Delhi. Prior to this, joining as Dean, he served as Dean & Joint Director (Education) for five years (2013-18) and Head, Division of Plant Pathology at IARI for seven years (2007-13). He earned M.Sc. degree from G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar and Ph.D. from IARI, New Delhi. He did his Post Doctorate from CSIRO, Melbourne, Australia; University of Florida, Gainesville, USA and University of Georgia, Tifton, USA. As a Plant Virologist, his research canvas includes distribution profile and genetic diversity, development of diagnostics and virus resistant transgenic plants (VRTPs) of emerging plant viruses such as Tobacco streak virus (TSV) affecting sunflower and groundnut, Papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) affecting papaya, Groundnut bud necrosis virus (GBNV) affecting tomato and Watermelon bud necrosis virus (WBNV) affecting cucurbits. His research contributions could find place in the journals: Virology, Journal of General Virology, Journal of Virological Methods, PLos 1, Virus Research, Plant Disease, Phytopathology etc. He has guided several M.Sc. and Ph.D. students. Besides, he has hosted Scientists from Australia, Bangladesh, Spain, UK and USA in his laboratory. He is the Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS); Indian Phytopathological Society (IPS) and Indian Virological Society (IVS). He has been a member of the ICTV Study Group Bunyaviridae and has played a key role in the recognition of the IYSV and WBNV as distinct tospovirus species. He has received several awards including Best Teacher Award and Hari Krishna Shastri Memorial Award of IARI; Recognition Award of NAAS; B.B. Mundkur Memorial Award of IPS;Prof. K.S. Bhargava Award of IVS etc. He has also been the President of IPS and Vice-President of IVS.

Dr. Subeer S. Majumdar was a scientist at National Institute of Immunology (NII), Delhi before becoming the Director of National Institute of Animal Biotechnology ( NIAB) at Hyderabad in 2016. Since June 1, 2021, he is a Distinguished Professor at NIAB.  To address global problem of infertility, he had undertaken studies of hormone mediated functional maturation of testicular somatic cells, using differential genomics and functional genomics by generating transgenic mice and identified important genes which regulate male fertility. These can become valuable tools for treating infertility of men to procreate their own child. Many of his work were published in established journals like  Endocrinology, Andrology, Molecular therapy etc.  He has established a new technique of transgenesis via testicular route, published in Nature Methods. He has some collaborative contribution in the field of metabolic disorder, diabetes, published in Nature Medicine. He has been working to generate human therapeutic proteins in milk of farm animals to make them cheaper and affordable. He has established a one health consortium in India, getting together the veterinary and medical fraternity to address the One Health issue for zoonotic disease surveillance and mitigation. He is a fellow of all three Indian Science Academies; he was awarded the TATA Innovation Fellowship by DBT and the JC Bose National Fellowship by DST-SERB.

Dr. Pramod Khandekar is one of the early Scientists in India, who started research in the area of Genetic
Engineering as a Senior Faculty of the National Institute of Immunology (NII), New Delhi. He did his PhD
from Banaras Hindu University in 1974. Thereafter, he continued his research as a Post-doctoral Fellow in
USA and Canada for 6 years on the development of chimeric plasmids based on 2 micron circle, for cloning
in yeast; and cloning and characterization of muscle specific genes from chicken. His research work in
India spanned in multiple projects including certain infectious and communicable diseases, with focus on
mycobacterial diseases including Leprosy and Tuberculosis, as also in Hepatitis B virus. He was deputed to
work in Institute Pasteur under Indo-Pasteur Programme, and to the Centre for Vaccine Development,
Maryland, NIH in certain Science Management Programs. He participated as an International Faculty to
deliver lectures in Genetic Engineering in Nigeria, which was organized by UNESCO. His scientific
publications include more than 30 original papers in international journals which are highly cited and
appreciated. He was involved in a team for the molecular characterization of Mw, a saprophytic
mycobacterium, based on which a therapeutic vaccine against leprosy was developed by NII and the
technology was transferred to industry. He worked as a Member of the Review Committee on Genetic
Manipulation (RCGM) of the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. He was also a Member
of the Academic Council of Poona University, Director of Bioinformatics Centre of the University and Chair
Professor of Biotechnology, Poona University.

Dr. Anjali A. Kulkarni did her M.Sc. (Botany, with specialization in Cytognetics and Plant Breeding) from the University of Pune in 1992. She had an outstanding academic career. She completed her Ph.D. from the University of Pune in 2002, while pursuing her research work at CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. She obtained a US Patent [US Patent No. 6,365,407, granted in 2002] based on her Ph.D. work. She has more than 19 publications in peer-reviewed journals and a recent Indian patent granted for a method to prepare insulin mimetic peptides from plants [Indian Patent No. 403527, granted on 12/08/22]. She is presently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Botany, Savitribai Phule Pune University (formerly University of Pune), Pune. She is guiding a number of students for their Ph.D. work besides others at the post graduate levels. Her research work is focused on identifying anti-diabetic and anti-cancer secondary metabolites from a number of unique plants through plant and animal cell culture, biochemistry, proteomics, disease biology as well as nanobiotechnology. She is deeply interested in science popularization. In 2021, she ran a year-long series of articles on Food Chemistry and Nutrition in a popular Marathi magazine: ‘Lokprabha’ from the Indian Express Group [https://expressgroup.indianexpress.com/our-brands.html]. She is also associated with ‘Aahaar Kranti’ initiative of GIST USA (https://gistusa.org/TEAM/).