Debasis Chattopadhyay obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 1990 and 1997, respectively, from University of Calcutta. He worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio, USA from 1996 to 2001. On return to India, he joined as a scientist at the National Institute of Plant Genome Research, Delhi and is continuing there.
Academic and research achievements: Dr. Chattopadhyay’s research interest is in the field of plant biotechnology, especially in genomics and abiotic stress (drought and salinity) response in plants. He participated in sequencing and annotation of tomato as a part of the International Consortium, which culminated in to producing a reference tomato genome sequence. His group also sequenced genomes of desi chickpea and wild progenitor of chickpea. In the area of abiotic stress, his interest is to investigate the role of Calcium signaling pathways in abiotic stress response. His group focuses on improving root growth to enable plants to grow in low soil moisture.
Awards and Honours: Dr. Chattopadhyay is a recipient of National Bioscience Award (2010), Tata Innovation Fellowship (2015) and NASI-Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee Award (2017) and J.C. Bose Fellowship (2020, SERB-DST). He is also fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (India), Indian Academy of Sciences and West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology.
