On 1 January 2023, Prof. Ramesh Sonti commenced his mandate as Director at ICGEB New Delhi, India.
Welcomed by outgoing Director, Dr. Dinakar Salunke, former Interim Director, Prof. Sudhir Sopory, staff and Principal Investigators, Prof. Ramesh Sonti took up his mandate as Director of ICGEB New Delhi.
Dr. Ramesh Sonti obtained his B.Sc. degree (Botany, Zoology and Chemistry) from Andhra University in 1980. He has obtained his M.Sc., distinction with Gold Medal, and M.Phil degrees in Plant Sciences from the University of Hyderabad and a Ph.D. in bacterial genetics from the University of Utah, USA.
Following post-doctoral research on plant genetics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA, in 1993 he joined the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad. In November 2017, he joined the National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi as Director.
Dr. Ramesh Sonti is a recipient of the Shanthi Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Biological Sciences and the National Bioscience Award of the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. He is a recipient of the J.C. Bose fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India; an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, the National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, and the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi. He is a fellow of the Telangana Akademi of Sciences.
Dr. Sonti led a team of inter-institutional investigators at the Indian Institute of Rice Research and CCMB that has been involved in development and popularisation of Improved Samba Mahsuri, a bacterial disease resistant rice variety. This team has been awarded the CSIR Award for S&T Innovations for Rural Development (CAIRD) 2014 and the Biotech Product Process Development and Commercialisation Award, DBT, Government of India, in 2016.
