V Nagaraja's Biography

V Nagaraja, President, JNCASR

Dr Nagaraja received his B.Sc and M.Sc degrees in the year 1973 and 1975 from the Bangalore University. He completed his Ph.D in 1981 from Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology at IISc and the work on mycobacteriophage I3 and role of DNA gyrase in mycobacteria set the stage for his later work when he joined the Institute as an assistant professor in 1989. After his PhD in 1981, he was a research associate at Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland (1981-85) and at Department of Biology, University of Rochester, USA(1985-89. He is presently a Professor at Microbiology and Cell Biology department, Indian institute of Science. He has been involved in teaching microbiology and molecular biology and carrying out research in the areas of molecular biology of mycobacteria, regulation of gene expression and DNA- protein interactions with more than 160 peer reviewed publications and several patents. In addition he has undertaken the task of popularizing science at various levels of education. He is a member in various committees and organized several prestigious and highly successful conferences. He served as Honorary Secretary and President of Society of Biological Chemists, India and President-elect Indian Society of Cell Biology. He is a recipient of several major science awards including Shati Swarup Bhatnagar prize, TWAS prize in Biology, IISc alumni award for excellence in research. Ranbaxy award, process- product- and technology development award of DBT, Sir Visveswariah senior scientist award etc. He is also a fellow of all the three National Academies of Science in India and a fellow of TWAS.