TS

Tilak Raj Sharma

National Institute for Plant Biotechnology

ORCID iD 0000-0001-6723-2330
Follow

About

Dr. Tilak Raj Sharma, a well-known Plant Molecular Biologist, is presently working as ICAR-National Professor-BP Pal Chair at NIPB, IARI, New Delhi. He has been former Deputy Director General (Crop Science), ICAR, New Delhi and also acting DDG (Horticulture Science), Director &Vice Chancellor, IARI, New Delhi, IARI Assam, IARI Jharkhand and Director, NIBSM, Raipur. Earlier he contributed in the establishment and development of the prominent DBT,GoI institutes like National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute, Mohali (Executive Director), Center of Innovative and Applied Bioprocessing (Chief Executive Officer),and ICAR institutes like National Institute for Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi (Director) and Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology Ranchi (OSD). He has varied experience of working at State Agricultural University, Palampur (1991-99), ICAR-IARI, New Delhi(1999-2017) and Department of Biotechnology, Govt of India (2017-2020), ICAR (2020-till date).
He obtained three Post Doctorate trainings on Plant Molecular Biology and Genome analysis, one at University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada and two from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, USA. He has visited 15 countries for various academic visits as member of Indian delegations or for trainings.
Dr. Sharma is the fellow of all four national academies viz; Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He has been awarded (twice) the prestigious JC Bose Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India.
For his outstanding research contributions Dr. Sharma has been Awarded various awards like; University Gold Medal and Certificate of Honour in Ph.D, 1990, Young Scientist Award, NAAS, 1998; ICAR Young Scientist Award (Crop Sciences), 1999; Prof. Umakant Sinha Memorial Award in Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology, Indian Science Congress Association, 2001; International World Technology Award for Biotechnology (jointly to Int. Rice Genome Sequencing Team) in 2003, DBT National Bioscience Award for Career Development, 2007. NAAS Recognition Award 2008; VASVIK Award 2011, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award-ICAR, 2011, NASI-Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee Award, 2013, J C Bose National Fellowship, 2013 & 2018,Prof MGK Menon Lecture Award (NASI) 2017., Prof. Bishan Singh Samundari Memorial lecture award (Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar) -2017-18, Prof. K.S. Bilgrami Memorial Medal (INSA)-2018 and OP Bhasin Award in Agricultural Sciences-2022.
His major research interests are in the areas of Genomics and plant disease resistance. Dr. Sharma has contributed extensively to the improvement of rice for over 35 years and identified and cloned a new rice blast resistance gene Pi54 which has been deployed in more than 40 rice varieties in India and abroad. He was associated with the decoding of complete genomes of rice, tomato, Pigeonpea, Jute, mango, tea and many plant pathogens. Dr. Sharma has guided 32 Ph D students and published more than 225 research papers (two in the prestigious journal Nature), obtained six Indian patents and associated in the development of three blast resistant rice varieties Pusa 1637, HPR2880, and Pusa Samba1850.

Employment

  • National Institute for Plant Biotechnology National Professor-BP Pal Chair
    2025 - 2030

Education

Education history is unavailable.

Projects & Funding

Projects & funding information is unavailable.

Publications (11)