Nagendra Kumar Singh Biography 
Nagendra Kumar Singh is a famous Indian agricultural scientist. Currently he serves as National Professor under ICAR at National Research Centre for Plant Biotechnology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Delhi. He is known for his research in the area of plant genomics and biotechnology. He has made significant contributions in decoding rice, tomato and pigeon pea genomes and has also helped to increase wheat productivity by knowing its storage proteins. Comparative analysis of rice and wheat genomes, mapping of genes for salt tolerance and basmati quality traits in rice are other noted contributions of this Indian scientist.
N. K. Singh was born on October 15, 1958 as the son of Village officer, Indrasan Singh. He completed his schooling at Primary Pathshala in Tilasawa village (1964-68) and Junior High School, Jahanaganj (1969-71). He passed matriculation from Wesley Higher Secondary School, Azamgarh. His degree and PG were completed at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi with gold medals. With a scholarship, he reached Adelaide, Australia and earned Doctoral Degree from Waite Agricultural Research Institute in 1985. He was awarded Dr K.P. Barley Prize best post graduate student prize at the university in 1983, prestigious CSIRO Post Doctoral Award and Queen Elizabeth II Award.
N. K. Singh was strongly influenced by swadeshi principles of Mahatma Gandhi and hence he returned back to India to serve Indian people through the knowledge he gained. Later he conducted numerous researches on Indian agricultural products particularly in the areas of plant biotechnology and genomics. In 2011 Singh led a group of 31 scientists from all over India and sequenced the pigeon pea genome, a successful project done for the first time in India. Throughout his career, he has received numerous honours, awards and fellowships, not only from India, but also abroad.
Published: N/A
Updated: February 18, 2014
