Speakers

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Rajeev K Varshney
	ICRISAT India
Biography:
Rajeev Varshney is a Director-Center of Excellence in Genomics at ICRISAT, Hyderabad and Theme Leader for the CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme (GCP) based in Mexico. He holds several adjunct positions such as Adjunct Professor in the University of Western Australia, Honorary Professor at BGI-Hongkong Research Institute, Visiting Professor in Guangzhou Academy of Agricultuaral Sciences, China, etc. He has a basic background in molecular genetics and possess more than 15 years research experience in international agriculture. Before joining ICRISAT in 2005 and GCP in 2007, he worked at Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Germany for five years. His research focuses on structural, functional, comparative and translational genomics for improving the crop productivity of so called "orphan" or "less-studied" crops in marginal environments in Africa and Asia. He has >200 research papers/ articles to his credit and edited five books (published by Springer, CRC Press and Kluwer). He is serving the Editorial Board of several international journals. He has been a frequent invited speaker, chairman and facilitator in international workshops/conferences/meetings and organizer/ convenor/ co-organizer for several international and national meetings/ workshops/ training programmes. Based on his contribution to crop genomics applied to breeding, Rajeev has won several awards/fellowships including Elected Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India; INSA Young Scientist Medal, 2008 (by the Indian National Science Academy); Associate Fellow - 2008 (by National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India); Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Award - 2007 (by The National Academy of Sciences, India - NASI), and The Greater Good Initiative Award - 2013 (by Illummina Inc.).