Dr. N.B. Das Memorial Lecture
October 30th, 2023
Venue: C. Subramaniam Auditorium (NASC Complex), New Delhi
About Dr. N. B. Das
Dr. N. B. Das (Nalin Bandhu Das) was born on June 1, 1908 in a family of jurists, educationists and physicians of Chittagong (now in Bangladesh). He graduated in Honours in Chemistry from the Calcutta University. He then joined Bose Institute as researcher and later on served the Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works for a short term. In 1930s, on being awarded ‘The Lady Tata Memorial Scholarship’, he proceeded to Germany for higher studies. He was awarded the Doctorate degree for his fundamental research on the biochemistry of enzymes. His Ph.D. research has been quite frequently cited in the text books on enzymology.
He had the privilege of working with two Nobel Laureates. Initially, he was with Prof. Hans von Euler at the Biochemical Institute, University of Stockholm, Sweden… read more...
Dr. N.B. Das Memorial Lecture will be given by Professor Rajeev K Varshney during the IBBACI Conference.
He is currently the International Chair in Agriculture and Food Security at Murdoch University in Australia, as well as the Director of the State Agricultural Biotechnology Centre and the Centre for Crop & Food Innovation at the Food Futures Institute. He is a highly cited researcher, who was recently honored to have been elected as a Fellow of The Royal Society (May, 2023). He is the Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher for 9 consecutive years in a row since 2014 in the field of Agricultural Science, specializing in genomics, genetics, molecular breeding, and capacity building in developing countries. He is involved in the discovery, development, and delivery of innovative R&D solutions to the world's most difficult agricultural problems. Prof. Varshney has made significant contributions to Asian and African food security by developing genomic resources for major "orphan" tropical crops. He created and applied DNA marker technologies to identify useful genetic variation in tropical crops. Varshney, together with his team, has used these resources and technologies to identify genetic loci/candidate genes for drought and pest tolerances in key staple crops for sub-Saharan Africa and India. He has the onus of establishing and nurturing the Center of Excellence in Genomics & Systems Biology (CEGSB), a globally recognized Center for genomics research at ICRISAT that made impacts on improving agriculture and development of human resources in several countries including India, China, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Nigeria, etc. Prof. Varshney holds Adjunct/Honorary/Visiting Professor positions at 10 academic institutions in Australia, China, Ghana, Hong Kong and India. He is an elected fellow/Academician to about 10 science and agriculture academies/ societies in India, Germany, USA, Africa. His research work has been recognized with >30 prestigious awards from USA, Germany, China, India, Nepal, Vietnam, Philippines, UAE, and many countries in Africa including the most coveted science award, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar prize and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award, from Government of India, International Crop Science Award from USA, Qilu Friendship Award, and Guangdong Friendship Award from China. He is a highly prolific author and has approximately 60,525 citations with an h-index of 120 currently. read more...