Shri Krishna Raj

Affilation: CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, India

Journal Associated: Journal of Plant Science and Phytopathology

Biography:

Dr S. K. Raj, born on 15th July 1953, did Ph.D. in Botany (Plant Virology) from Kanpur University in 1990 on the topic “Characterization of a virus causing ring spot disease in Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) and its management”. He joined the Plant Virology Laboratory at CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow in 1986 as “Scientist” and worked as Senior Scientist, Principal Scientist and Chief Scientist till 31st July 2015. He has been Principal Investigator of CSIR, DBT, DST, UPCST funded projects on biological, biochemical, molecular studies of plant viruses affecting ornamental and commercially important crop plants for development of effective management strategies through efficient virus diagnostics and virus resistant transgenic plants. Out of his research contributions, he has been able to publish more than 200 research papers in national and international journals. He has guided 11 Ph.D. students and trained more than 150 M.Sc. students to fulfill their dissertations. Dr. Raj has also worked as visiting scientist at Institute of Genetics and Crop Research, Gatersleban, Germany in 1991 (INSA-DFG fellowship) with Prof. R. M. Leiser; and at Scottish Crop Research Institute, Dundee, U.K. in 1997 (INSA Royal Society fellowship) and 2000 (DBT fellowship) with Prof. Micheal Taliansky. He is a life member of several national scientific societies like Indian Virological Society, Association of Plant Pathologists of India, Indian Phytopathological Society, The Society for Plant Biochemistry & Biotechnology, Indian Science Congress, The National Academy of Sciences, India and The American Phytopathological society. He has been the Editor in Chief of Asian Journal of Plant Pathology, Academic Journals Inc., Science Alert, New York, USA; Sectional Editor (Plant Virology) for Indian Journal of Virology and Phytoplathology; and reviewer for: Journal of Phytopathology, Fruits Journal, The Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences, Current Science and Journal of Biosciences, The Journal of General and Molecular Virology and Plant Disease (APS).
 Dr. Raj has been honored with “Vigyan Ratan Award” of 2010-2011 from Uttar Pradesh Science and Technology (UPCS&T), Lucknow; U. P. Government, India for his major scientific contributions in the area of Plant Virology and Biotechnology specially for identification and characterization of several plant viruses, development of virus diagnostics and virus resistant transgenic plants for protection of floricultural and horticultural crop plants by viral diseases. These efforts are for improvement of crop productivity and ultimately to benefit the farmers of Uttar Pradesh and our country. He has also been honored with Plant Pathology Leadership Award 2012 by Indian Phytopathological Society for the outstanding contributions, scientific excellence and distinguished services for the cause of plant pathological research, education and technology dissemination, impacted the science of plant pathology in the country. Dr. Raj has also been elected as the Fellow of Indian Virological Society by the Indian Virological Society, New Delhi, India in 2013 for his devotion and outstanding contribution and scientific excellence in the field of plant virology.

Research Interest

My research interest is in the area of molecular plant virology, virus diagnostics, virus disease management through developing virus-free plants and virus resistant transgenic plants.