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Nandula Raghuram

Also known as: N. Raghuram, Prof. Nandula Raghuram

Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University School of Biotechnology, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Jawaharlal Nehru University School of Life Sciences, University of Mumbai

ORCID iD 0000-0002-9486-754X
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About

Prof. N. Raghuram is currently the Founder-Head of the Centre for Sustainable Nitrogen and Nutrient Management at the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University in New Delhi, India. He is a biologist by training and has been a faculty member of life sciences and biotechnology since 1997. He specialises in molecular biology and functional genomics, with particular reference to plant signal transduction in stress and nutrient responses, nitrate responsive gene expression and nitrogen use efficiency, especially in rice and Arabidopsis. He characterized the phenotype for nitrogen use efficiency in rice and shortlisted candidate genes for its improvement. He resurrected the role of GPCR in plant G-protein signalling and brought out their role in biotic stress and nutrient responses. Earlier, he characterized the genes of N-metabolism and its regulation in the cyanobacterium Arthrospira (Spirulina). He also collaborates with biomedical scientists, computational physicists/biologists. His broader interests include environment, health, education, science dissemination and policy. .

He is Emeritus Chair of the International Nitrogen Initiative (INI, 2019-2022), Steering Committee member of the UN Environment Global Partnership on Nutrient Management (GPNM), President of the Sustainable India Trust and Society for conservation of Nature and was previously Co-founder of the Indian Nitrogen Group and honorary Director of the South Asian Nitrogen Centre of INI. In these roles, he facilitated interdisciplinary international consultations on the research and policy aspects of reactive nitrogen and other nutrients in agriculture, industry and environment, leading to the India-led resolution on 'Sustainable Nitrogen Management' in the UN Environment Assembly in March 2019. As an editor of the Springer journal, Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants, he put it among the top few plant journals in Asia and among the top quartile of all plant journals globally. As the Secretary and Vice-President, Society for Scientific Values, he promoted ethics and campaigned against misconduct in Indian science and defended its reputation.

He obtained his M.Sc.Ed in Life Sciences from NCERT (Utkal University, 1984) and worked on the cloning and expression of bacterial cellulase genes for his M.Phil (University of Pune, 1987). As a Research Associate at the Thapar Corporate R&D Centre, Patiala (1987-88), he isolated osmotolerant yeasts and developed the technology for ethanol production from molasses using whole-cell immobilized column bioreactor, which was later commercialized. He obtained his Ph.D in Life Sciences (Jawaharlal Nehru University, 1994), for his work on signal transduction and regulation of nitrate reductase gene expression in maize. After a brief post-doctoral stint as a CSIR Research Associate at JNU, he moved to the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, as a policy analyst and Correspondent for its magazine, Down to Earth (1995-97). Between 1997 and 2002, he worked as a Lecturer at the Department of Life Sciences, University of Mumbai, where he designed curricula and taught molecular biology and biochemistry at the Masters level. He was a visiting guest faculty at the Centre for Biotechnology, JNU in 2001, where he designed and taught a course in plant biotechnology at the Masters level. He was a INSA-Royal Society Visiting Fellow at the IACR-LARS, UK, in 2001. Since 2002, he worked as a Reader, Associate Professor and is currently Professor in the School of Biotechnlogy, GGS Indraprastha University, New Delhi . He taught 20 courses for B.Tech/M.Tech/M.Sc./Ph.D and mentored 88 researchers for Ph.D/ M.Tech/M.Sc./B.Tech so far in 3 universities and held research projects and consultancies worth over 64 million Rupees from government and industry.

Employment

  • Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University School of Biotechnology Head
    2022 - Present
  • Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University Dean
    2015 - 2018
  • Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University Professor
    2009 - Present
  • University of Mumbai Lecturer
    1997 - 2002
  • University of Mumbai Lecturer
    1997 - 2002

Education

  • Jawaharlal Nehru University School of Life Sciences Ph.D.
    1988 - 1994

Projects & Funding

Projects & funding information is unavailable.

Publications (94)