Dr. Ravish
Chatrath did his B.Sc. (Ag.) from College of Agriculture, HP University Solan in
1978, M.Sc. in Genetics (1978-80) and PhD in Genetics (1980-85) from Punjab
Agricultural University, Ludhiana. He started his scientific career at ICAR-Central
Arid Zone Research Institute Regional Station, Pali-Marwar (Rajasthan) in March
1985 and subsequently at ICAR-CAZRI, Jodhpur in March 1986 where he briefly
worked in the All India Coordinated Research Project on Pearl Millet.
Thereafter he joined ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal in
November 1988 where he worked on breeding wheat for salinity tolerance. In
November 2001 he was selected as Principal Scientist at then Directorate of
Wheat Research (Now ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research), Karnal
till his superannuation in April, 2019. Post his superannuation he worked as
Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, DAV University, Jalandhar from January 2020 till
January 2021. He is currently working as Scientist Emeritus at ICAR-Indian
Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, Karnal since February 2021.
Dr Ravish
Chatrath, has remarkable achievements in wheat breeding, having developed 19
wheat varieties for various conditions including salt stress and
biofortification along with several genetic stocks. His landmark achievement
has been the recommendation of his variety DBW 187 in three mega zones of the
country that now tops the breeder seed indent. His area of expertise is breeding
wheat for high productive environments, wheat biofortification, water use
efficiency through root and shoot traits, bioinformatics and breeding for salt
stress. His research on protocols for salt stress screening and its genetics;
evaluation and breeding for resource conservation technologies and farmers’
participatory research methodologies is widely acclaimed. He has led five
international and many national research projects and has a wide international
experience having visited more than fifteen countries in all the continents. His
publications have 2230 citations; h-index of 19 and i10-index of 31 on Google
Scholar.
Dr. Chatrath is
recipient of the many prestigious awards viz., Borlaug Global Rust Initiative
Gene Steward Award, Hooker Award, MV Rao Memorial Award, Major J. Sharma
Guleria Memorial Gold Medal. He is also a Fellow of the prestigious National
Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Society for Advancement of Wheat and Barley
Research and Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding.