Biography

Dr Rajeev Gupta is a result oriented and accomplished Agricultural Biotechnologist, Molecular Biologist/Geneticist and a successful leader with a PhD and Post-Doctoral Fellow from University of Cambridge, UK and University of California, Berkeley, USA, respectively. Dr Gupta has more than two decades of global experience working in various public (UC Berkeley), private (DuPont Pioneer now Corteva) and non-profit/CGIAR (ICRISAT) sectors handling multiple projects in Ag Biotechnology and Crop Improvement. Dr Gupta is currently working as Research Leader for Cereal Crops Research Unit (CCRU) at USDA-ARS, Fargo, ND. The primary mission of this unit (CCRU) is to improve quality and disease resistance of small grains (barley, wheat, durum, oat) through research on genetics, genomics, pathology, molecular biology, and end-use quality. Most recently till July 2021, Dr Gupta worked as Principal Scientist and Theme Leader for Genomics and Trait Discovery at ICRISAT, India where he led a team of ~30 scientists working on developing and applying modern resources, tools and technologies in genomics, genetics, and trait discovery programs in ICRISAT’s mandate cereals (sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet) and grain legumes (chickpea, groundnut, pigeonpea). In addition, he also led or co-led several international consortia such as CRP-GLDC (CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals), CINTRIN (Cambridge India Network for Translational Research in Nitrogen), TIGR2ESS (Transforming India's Green Revolution by Research and Empowerment for Sustainable food Supplies) etc. Dr Gupta has published ~50 research articles in high impact international journals such as Nature, PNAS, The Plant Cell, Plant J, Plant Physiol., Plant Biotech J, Plant Mol Biol. etc. in addition to ~45 patent applications related to abiotic stress tolerance and yield enhancement in crops. At ICRISAT, Dr Gupta has been involved in competitive grants for fund raising for ~$30M and received several recognitions at including the Best People Manager award.