Rajeev Varshney's Biography

Rajeev Varshney, Global Research Program Director, Genetic Gains, ICRISAT

Dr Rajeev Varshney, Global Research Program Director, Genetic Gains at ICRISAT and Winthrop Research Professor at The University of Western Australia, has 15 years research experience in international agriculture. In his dual appointment, he also served CGIAR Generation Challenge Program (hosted by CIMMYT, Mexico) as Theme Leader for six years. Before joining ICRISAT, Rajeev worked at IPK-Gatersleben, Germany for five years. He is internationally recognized for his contribution in genome sequencing of pigeonpea, chickpea, peanut, pearl millet, sesame, mungbean and adzuki bean and development of superior lines in chickpea, pigeonpea and peanut through molecular breeding.

Elected Fellow of Leopoldina- German National Academy of Sciences, American Association of Advancement in Sciences (USA), The World Academy of Sciences, Crop Science Society of America and leading science academies of India (Indian National Science Academy, The National Academy of Sciences, India, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, etc.), Rajeev has received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology from Government of India, the Qilu Friedship Award from Shandong Province of Republic of China, the Young Crop Scientist Award of CSSA, the Illumina Agricultural Greater Good Initiative Award, Research Excellence India Citation Award 2015 by Thomson Reuters and Plaques/Certificates of Appreciation from the Philippines, Nepal and Vietnam, amongst others.
Rajeev, recognized as Highly Cited Researcher by Thomson Reuters for the last three consecutive years, has published >300 publications including in Nature, Nature Biotech, Nature Genetics, Nature Commun, PNAS, Genome Biology, etc. Rajeev provides leadership to several organizations by serving member/chair for several committees, editorial boards, funding organizations and advisory boards. While serving international agriculture in collaboration with partners from advances research institutes and developing countries, Rajeev has met/interacted with several high profile and influential personalities from science, society and politics that includes (Late) Dr Norman Borlaug, Noble Laureate, Mr Bill Gates, Co-Chair of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Mr Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India.