Dr. Anath Bandhu Das

Born on 20th March 1959 in the village Sagar Krishnanagar, South 24-Parganas, West Bengal, Prof. Anath Bandhu Das as a faculty in Botany, Utkal University made significant contributions in the field of cytogenetics, cytometry, genome size and DNA marker analysis in ~ 350 species of Medicinal Plants, Mangroves, Cacti, Legumes, Zingibers, Orchids and Banana during last three decades. He passed H. Sc. Examination from Harinbari Yudistir Adarsha High School, Sagar island on 1976 and completed his B.Sc. Botany Hon’s from Surendranath College, Calcutta during 1979. He obtained his M. Sc. and Ph. D. in Botany with Cytogenetics and Plant Breeding as special Paper from Calcutta University during 1982 and 1989 respectively as a disciple of an internationally acclaimed eminent cytogeneticest, Prof. Arun Kumar Sharma. He joined as Associate Professor in Plant Biotechnology at Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar during 2009 after the completion of 19 years of service at Regional Plant Resource Centre as scientist and senior scientist since 1991. In the mean time he obtained his D.Sc. in Botany from Berhampur University, Odisha during 1995 on Molecular cytogenetics of cacti. He finally joined as Professor in Department of Botany from 2015 and took charge of Head of the Department. Subsequently he became the Director, Self Financing Departments of Utkal University and superannuated on 31st March 2019. Currently he is working as Visiting Professor in Centre of Advanced Study in North East India Study, Utkal University under RUSA 2.0 Programme.

His pioneering work on chromosome and karyotype analysis, genome size estimation in more than 200 species of plants is widely cited. His research on inheritance of colour pigments in new intergeneric and interspecific cacti hybrids and reports on translocation of chromosome segments are very significant. The DNA fingerprinting work on cacti, mangroves, wild orchids and legumes using DNA markers resolved many discrepancies in taxonomic classifications. His works added new dimensions to the Plant Genome DNA Data base of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The discovery of novel salt protein markers from high salt tolerant tree mangroves Bruguiera parviflora yielded new gene products of interest for crop improvement. He developed a banana variety “Mallika” which is popular in costal Orissa. He developed regeneration protocol of ten local varieties of banana to establish commercial mass multiplication of banana to support livelihood programmes of Government of Orissa in 30 districts of Odisha under Orissa Tribal Development Programme.

In addition to his teaching responsibility, he also served as Course Co-ordinator, M.Sc. in Applied Microbiology; Chairman, SRC Botany, Life Science and Microbiology; Co-ordinator, UGC-SAP-DRS-III, DST-FIST Programme; Chairman, Board of Studies in Botany and Microbiology; Member, Board of Studies in Environmental Science. He also took responsibilities as Co-ordinator BARC Out Reach Centre, Utkal University. Besides, he also became the Secretary of Orissa Botanical Society from 2016-2018 and Vice President during 2019; Vice Chancellor’s nominee for BJB College, P.N. College, Khurda; S.C.S. College, Puri; Kendra Para Autonomous College, Kendrapara; Nayagrah Autonomous College, Nayagrah; Dehenkanol Autonomous Cellege, Dhenkanol and Co-ordinator Faculty Recruitment Committee, Utkal University, Member virtual teaching courses. DDCE, R & D Committee and College Development Council, Utkal University; Chairman all University unified Botany Syllabus committee of Odisha by Odisha Higher Education Council.

Dr. Das brought out more than 200 publications in reputed National and Interna-tional journals, 3 books, 3 Practical Manuals and 9 book chapters. He guided one D.Sc., 10 Ph. D., 15 M. Phil. 35 M. Sc. students. He handled more than 15 projects (2 ongoing) supported by MoEF, DST, CSIR, DBT, NMPB and Orissa Government. He is a guest lecturer/examiner in a number of reputed Research Institutes and Universities. He serves as a reviewer/ referee for a number of reputed International Journals. He was awarded the prestigious Rothamsted International – Lawes Agricultural Trust (RI-LAT) Fellowship in IACR Rothamsted, UK in 1999 and worked with Prof. B.P.S. Khambay, Dr. R. Parry and Prof. Jon Pickett, FRS. He was awarded Matsumae International Foundation (MIF) Fellowship, Japan in 2000 and worked with Prof. A. Fukuzawa at Hokaido University, Sapporo, Japan. He also awarded two times DBT Overseas Associateships and worked with Prof. J. Dolezel, in IEB, Czech Republic in 2005 and Prof. J. S. Heslop-Harrison, Molecular Cytogenetics Laboratory, Leister University, U.K. in 2010. He also availed British Council Higher Education link Fellowship and worked with Prof. R. H. Marrs, Ness Botanical Garden, University of Liverpool, UK. He also worked as Visiting Professor at Genetics Department, University of Leiden, The Netherlands and worked with Prof. A. T. Natarajan and Prof. Van Zee Land. AS a visiting Scientist he went to Queen Marry College, University of London, UK and work with Prof. A. Leitch and also with Prof. P. Brandham and Prof. Illa Leitch, Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Botanic Garden, Kew during 1998, 1999 and 2010. He was honoured with Professor Hira Lal Chakravorty Award during 1999 in Botany by the Indian Science Congress Association, Calcutta for his outstanding contributions to the science of Botany and received the award from Nobel Laureate Prof. J. Watson at Madras University, Samanta Chandrasekhar Award during 2007 in Botany by the Orissa Bigyan Academy, DST, Govt. of Orissa for his significant contribution in Biotechnology and molecular biology and Dr. Mupari Braham Award during 2018 for outstanding life time contribution in Botany and Plant biodiversity and genetic diversity by Orissa Botanical Society, Odisha. He is a very popular teacher and researcher liked by students for his simplicity and pleased personality