Saturday, October 1, 2016

PAU: Dr. Parveen Chhuneja Joins as Director Biotechnology


She is a recipient of Young Scientist Award
Ludhiana: 30 September 2016: (Punjab Screen Bureau):
Dr (Mrs) Parveen Chhuneja, Senior Molecular Geneticist, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has been appointed as Director, School of Agricultural Biotechnology, PAU. Dr Chhuneja has a brilliant and an outstanding academic record and professional career in the discipline of biotechnology. Hailing from Faridkot, she had her Bachelor and Master’s degree from Punjabi University, Patiala in high first class and Ph.D. in Genetics with specialization in Wheat Cytogenetics from PAU with an OGPA of 4.00/4.00. She is a recipient of Young Scientist Award by Department of Science and Technology, University Merit and Plaque for best researcher, and Dr G.S. Khush Distinguished Professor Award.
Dr Chhuneja has transferred a number of new genes from wild species to cultivated wheat. These have been mobilised to elite wheat backgrounds for diversifying the breeder’s germplasm base. Five of these genes have been designated as Yr40, Yr70, Lr57, Lr58 and Lr76 and included in Wheat Gene Catalogue. Dr Chhuneja and her team have developed molecular markers for marker assisted selection of a number of disease resistance genes which are being used in the wheat breeding programme. She has been maintaining and utilising the largest collection of wild species of wheat among all the national institutes and state agricultural universities. This has paved way for the award of several national and international research and development grants.
Dr Chhuneja has published 62 papers in the journals of  national and international repute including two in ‘Science’ with NAAS rating of 20.0. Besides, she has 75 conference papers to her credit. She has also authored four practical manuals for various biotechnology courses and has written seven book chapters. She is on the reviewing panel of several national and international journals.
Dr Chhuneja has worked as a visiting scientist at the Institute of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Zurich, Switzerland and John Innes Centre, United Kingdom. She has wide international exposure as she has visited nine countries for participation in workshops/meetings of research projects and/or advanced trainings in biotechnology.
She has handled 15 competitive research projects as Principal Investigator, out of which, five have been international network projects. She has also been the Co-Principal Investigator of prestigious international Wheat Genome Sequencing project.
She has supervised 17 post-graduate students and some of her students are working as doctoral and post doctoral fellows in reputed international institutes. She has been actively involved in development and deliverance of biotechnology teaching programme in the university. Besides, Dr Chhuneja has also trained about 30 researchers through her projects. She was also actively involved in developing biotechnology curriculum for B.Tech. Biotechnology at the national level as Member of Deans’ Expert Committee.

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