Plenary Lecture: Rajeev Varshney - "Translational Genomics for Chickpea Improvement: Faster and Better Product Delivery"
Research Program Director, Grain Legumes and Director - Center of Excellence in Genomics (CEG), ICRISAT, INDIA; Winthrop Research Professor, University of Western Australia, AUSTRALIA
Dr. Rajeev Varshney, an Indian national and Principal Scientist is serving ICRISAT as a Research Program Director, Grain Legumes and Director - Center of Excellence in Genomics (CEG) as well as Wintrhop Research Professor at The University of Western Australia. Rajeev, in his dual appointment earlier served CGIAR Generation Challenge Program based in Mexico as Theme Leader for six years. Before joining ICRISAT, he worked at Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Germany for five years.
Rajeev has a basic background in molecular genetics and possess more than 20 years research experience in international agriculture. The primary contribution of Rajeev Varshney includes genome sequencing of pigeonpea, chickpea, peanut, pearl millet, sesame, mung bean and azuki bean and first generation of molecular breeding products in chickpea and groundnut in addition to large-scale genomic resources like molecular markers, transcriptome assemblies, high density genetic maps and QTLs for a range of traits in legumes. In addition, he is also leading the 3000 chickpea genome sequencing initiative. Rajeev is also leading analysis and development of tools for large scale next generation genomics data.
Time: 9:45 AM-10:30 AM