Recognizing Plant Direct authors: Rajeev Gupta
Rajeev Gupta, first author of The maize premature senesence2 encodes for PHYTOCHROME-DEPENDENT LATE-FLOWERING and its expression modulation improves agronomic traits under abiotic stresses
Current Position: Principal Scientist and Theme Leader for Genomics and Trait Discovery, ICRISAT, INDIA, Falgship Program 5 (Pre-Breeding & Trait Discovery) Leader CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes & Dryland Cereals (CRP-GLDC)
Education: PhD (University of Cambridge UK), PDF (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
Non-scientific Interests: watching movies/TV, travelling, exporing new places, making new friends, etc.
Brief bio: Dr Rajeev Gupta is an accomplished Agricultural Biotechnologist, Molecular Biologist, Molecular Geneticist and a successful leader with a PhD and PDF from University of Cambridge, UK and UC Berkeley, USA, respectively. Currently, Dr Gupta is the Principal Scientist and Theme Leader for Genomics and Trait Discovery at International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT.org), based in Hyderabad, India. In addition, Dr Gupta is also leading flagship program on Pre-Breeding & Trait Discovery in CGIAR research program on Grain Legumes & Dryland Cereals (gldc.cgiar.org). Dr Gupta also leads one of the Flagship Program in multi-institutes/countries TIGR2ESS (Transforming India’s Green Revolution by Research and Empowerment for Sustainable food Supplies; tigr2ess.globalfood.cam.ac.uk/) project funded by BBSRC-GCRF, UK. Dr Gupta joined ICRISAT after almost two decades of professional career abroad mostly in the USA working in various public (UC Berkeley) and private sectors (DuPont Pioneer) handling multiple projects in Ag Biotechnology and Crop Improvement. At ICRISAT, Dr Gupta leads a team of scientists working on developing and applying modern resources, tools and technologies in genomics, genetics and trait discovery programs in ICRISAT’s mandate dryland cereals (sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet) and grain legumes (chickpea, groundnut, pigeonpea) to accelerate the rate of genetic gains to improve the income and livelihood of small holder farmers in semi-arid tropics regions of south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. With more than two decades of international experience in non-profit, public, and private sectors, Dr Gupta has published more than 40 research articles in high impact international journals such as Nature, PNAS, The Plant Cell, The Plant Journal, Plant Physiology, Plant Biotechnology Journal, Plant Molecular Biology etc., in addition to around 40 patent applications related to abiotic stress tolerance and yield enhancement in crops.
