Dr. Sudesh Kumar Yadav obtained his M.Sc. in 1999 and PhD in 2002 from the Department of Biochemistry, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar. Subsequently, he worked as post-doctoral fellow at ICGEB, New Delhi, India. He joined CSIR - Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur in 2004, worked in CIAB-Mohali (2016-2023) and he took over the charge of Director CSIR-IHBT, Palampur on 9th June 2023. His research focuses on metabolic engineering of plants and microbes for value addition, synthetic biology and omics approaches to improve metabolic pathways and use of nanobiology for better efficacy as well as improved enzyme-based bioprocesses. He has extensively worked on understanding the regulation of key metabolic pathways of crops like tea, stevia, rice and horsegram. He has developed several processes based on synthetic biology and nanobiology for the production of high-value functional molecules from natural bioresources and agri-residues. He has published more than 100 research articles in peer-reviewed journals and 20+ book chapters. He is also a Fellow, The National Academy of Sciences India, Allahabad, and Fellow, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi. He is also recipient of S. Ramachandran-National Bioscience Award, and NASI-Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee Award.
Dr. Avnesh Kumari obtained her M.Sc. in chemistry in 2001 and PhD in 2007 from the Department of Chemistry, Panjab University, India. Subsequently, she worked as postdoctoral fellow at CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur, India. She joined CSIR-IHBT in 2011 and is presently working there as an assistant professor and senior technical officer (2). She has been working in the area of nanobiology and electron microscopy. In nanobiology, her main work is on the improvement of solubility, bioavailability and efficacy of antimicrobial, antioxidant and anticancer phytomolecules possessing activities. Her work also includes isolation of nanocellulose from different plant species and using them in different applications. She has published 49+ research articles in peer-reviewed journals, 5 international patents (1 granted and 4 filed) and 12+ book chapters.