Senior Scientist (Plant Pathology)

Born on 8th July, 1967 in Hooghly District of West Bengal, Dr. Ashis Kumar Das obtained his B.Sc. (Ag.) Hons. Degree from Visvs-Bharti University, Santiniketan, west-Bengal and Master’s degree in Mycology and Plant Pathology from Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi in 1991. He then worked for his Doctorate at Nuclear Research Laboratory, IARI, New Delhi on detectionand management of brinjal little leaf, a phytoplasma included disease where he succeeded in developing some fluoresent probes for its rapid detection. During his Doctorate, he also did some basic courses on Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Biotechnology.

He completed his Ph.D. degree from IARI, New Delhi in 1996. He stood  first in Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Examination 1992, conducted by Agricultural Scientist Recruitment Board (ASRB) in the discipline of Plant Pathology and subsequently joined in ARS as Scientist at National Research Centre forCitrus, Nagpur on 24th July, 1995. Presently he is working oncitrus diseases caused by fungi, bacteria and other fastidious prokaryotes. His area of working includes molecular identification of Phytophthora spp. and Xanthomonas axnopodis pv. citri and integrated management of the diseases and development of PCR-based molecular diagnostic tools for Huanglongbing, HLB (greening).

Dr. Das, till date, has published 31 research papers in national and international journals, 4 popular articles 1 book and 4 extension folders. He is also recognized by Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Jabalpur, M.P. forguiding the students forM.Sc. theses work. He is a life member of Indian Society of Citriculture and Indian Phytopathological Socity. Recently he visited Orlando, Florida, USA to deliver the oral presentation on "Citrus Greening (Huanglongbing) Disease in India: Present Status and Diagnostic Efforts" at the International Research Conference on Huanglongbing (December 1-5, 2008). He may be contacted at dasashiskumar@hotmail.com.