Dr. P. Parvatha Reddy
Born at Asundi, District Bellary, Karnataka, on 6th April 1942, Dr. P. Parvatha Reddy obtained his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Karnataka University, Dharwad in 1964 and 1966 respectively. He has obtained his doctorate jointly from the University of Florida, USA and the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore under the Ford Foundation-UAS Programme in 1974. Dr. P. Parvatha Reddy had served as the Head of the Division of Entomology and Nematology of this Institute from April 1982 to Sept 1985. Before joining the Institute, Dr. Reddy had served from 1967 to 1975 as Junior Pathologist at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore. He has over 20 years of experience in nematode-induced diseases of crop plants. Dr. Reddy served as Director, IIHR, from 08.12.1999 to 31.04.2002.
Dr. Reddy's research interests concern the nematode associations with crop plants, host-parasite interactions, chemical control, host resistance and economic nematology. His significant contributions include mode of actions of amino acids against root-knot nematodes in tomato, nature of resistance to root-knot nematodes in cowpea and evolving root-knot nematode resistant cultivars (both F1 hybrids and open pollinated lines) of tomato. He is closely associated with the post Graduate nematology Research programme at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, and guided Ph.D. students. He has written a book on Plant Nematology and published in reputed Indian and foreign Journals about 75 research papers on various aspects of nematology.
Dr. Reddy is a Fellow of the Phytopathological Society of India and Life member of the nematological Society of India and other professional organizations. He served as a member of the Executive Council of the Nematological Society of India for two years during 1975 and 1976.