Dr. Sanjay Kumar Singh has assumed the charge of Director, ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru, a premier horticulture institute on 13th December, 2022 (FN). He is an alumnus and gold medalist from the reputed Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, during his both Master and Doctoral degree programs and did his Post-doc on ‘Tropical fruits Biotechnology’ from University of Florida, USA. Dr. S.K. Singh, before joining ICAR-IIHR, was the Head,Division of Fruits & Horticultural Technology, IARI, New Delhi. Prof. Singh is specialized in crop improvement and genomics of mango and grape, tree physiology and plant tissue culture of fruit crops.
In the research front, he has developed improved varieties of grape (Pusa Aditi, Pusa Trishar, Pusa Swarnika and Pusa Purple Seedless) and mango (Pusa Deepshikha & Pusa Manohari). He was also involved in the mass multiplication of grape genotypes through repetitive in-vitro double-node micro-cuttings, pomegranate and citrus and their bio-hardening of plantlets using arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. He has standardized the technique of in-ovulo embryo rescue and in-vitro mutagenesis in grape, citrus and mango; In-vitro regeneration protocol for somatic embryogenesis in mango and guava and in-vitro screening of mango, grape and citrus genotypes for salinity ((NaCI) and moisture stress (PEG)) tolerance and also standarised the pruning intensity in HDP mango genotypes. He has also developed leaf transcriptome sequencing for identifying genic-SSR markers and SNP heterozygosity in mango variety (Amrapali). He has published research articles, exceeding 200, in reputed national and international journals.
In the education front, he is a recognised faculty of PG School, IARI, New Delhi, in the discipline of Fruit Science and so far guided 17 Ph.D & seven M.Sc. students. He is the recipient of several awards including Hari Om Ashram Trust Award of the ICAR (2005-06) in 2007; Bharat Ratna Dr C. Subramanium Best Teacher Award of the ICAR-2017; Sh. G.L. Chadha Memorial Gold Medal-2009 of the Indian Academy of Horticultural Sciences (IAHS); Fellowships of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), New Delhi- 2018 and the Best Teacher Award-2005 of IARI, New Delhi, besides Associateships of DBT and NAAS, New Delhi. Prof. S. K. Singh is also recognised and serving as one of the Vice-Presidents of the reputed Indian Academy of Horticultural Sciences (IAHS), New Delhi.