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Born on March 25, 1966, Dr (Mrs) Parveen Chhuneja obtained her Ph. D. in Genetics from Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana in 1992. She started her professional career as Assistant Scientist (DST) at PAU, Ludhiana in 1996 and joined Biotechnology Centre, PAU, as Assistant Cytogeneticist in May 1999. She has been working in PAU at various positions since then. Dr Chhuneja is currently working as Director, School of Agricultural Biotechnology, PAU, Ludhiana since September 2016.

Dr Parveen Chhuneja has made significant contributions in broadening gene pool of wheat through introgression and molecular mapping of a battery of genes from wild wheat species to cultivated wheat. She along with her team has successfully introgressed 27 disease resistance genes and a number of other genes for quality traits and heat tolerance in wheat. Five of the rust resistance genes Lr57, Lr58, Lr76, Yr40 and Yr70 have been designated and included in the international gene catalogue.

She has made major contributions in pre-breeding and introgression of genes leading to the development of six wheat varieties, four of which have been released at the national level. Two wheat varieties Unnat PBW343 and PBW771 carry the alien genes with board spectrum rust resistance introgressed from wild species by Dr Chhuneja. Genes and specialized genetic stocks developed by her are novel resource for pre-breeding, which are being used extensively in national wheat breeding programmes.

Dr Chhuneja has secured research funding from various national and international sources and handled seven international and 12 national projects as Principal Investigator. She has published more than 100 research papers in high impact journals including three in Science. Dr Chhuneja has also published four practical manuals and eight book chapters. She has guided 13 M.Sc. and eight Ph.D. students as major advisor besides training a large number of young researchers in applied genomics. 

She has won a number of prestigious awards including BGRI Gene Stewardship Team Award, Panjabrao Deshmukh Award for Outstanding Woman Scientists-2018 by Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Dr Gurdev Singh Khush Distinguished Professor Award 2016-19 and Award of Plaque and Citation for 2013-14 by Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. She has worked as visiting scientist in various International institutes such as Kansas State University, USA, University of Zurich, Switzerland and John Innes Centre, UK

The Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding feels proud to bestow on Dr Parveen Chhuneja Fellowship of the Society for her outstanding contributions in Wheat Improvement.