Yajnavalkya Bhardwaja completed his PhD from the University of London (1933). His area of specialization was algology. He was Professor and Head, Department of Botany, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (1933-55) and Research Professor, BR College, Agra.

Academic and Research Achievements: Bhardwaja specialized in the morphology of algae, particularly of Myxophyceae, which earned him international reputation. His research covered other groups of algae, notably a new species of the remarkable chaeotophoralean green alga, Draparanaldiopsis indica Bharadwaja, and two new species of Scytonemataceae: Spelaeopogon kashyapi and Scytonema malaviyaensis.

Other Contributions: The school of Algae Studies at BHU established by Bhardwaja, is known world over for its contributions.

Awards and Honours: Professor Bhardwaja was a Fellow of the Linnaean Society (London), the Indian Botanical Society (President, 1944) and National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad. He was the President of the Botany Section of the Indian Science Congress (1940).