Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary, DARE and Director General, ICAR is awarded VS Mathur Memorial Award 2019 for his outstanding contributions to Agriculture and Allied Sciences.
Born on 20th April, 1962 in Kharibil village, Cuttack, Odisha,Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra had his agricultural education from Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology, Bhubaneswar and Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. Prior to his current position as Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research & Education and Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, Dr Mohapatra worked as Director of two prestigious ICAR Institutions namely, IARI, New Delhi and NRRI, Cuttack, Odisha.
Dr Mohapatra’s area of specialization is molecular genetics and genomics. His research accomplishments include development of first high-yielding basmati rice variety resistant to bacterial leaf blight through molecular marker assisted selection, and physical mapping and genome sequencing of rice and tomato. He has also made significant contribution to development of 14 varieties of crops including the first high yielding rice variety with (>10%) grain protein content. He is credited with initiating mega research programmes in frontier areas including genomics, phenomics, bioprospecting of genes, allele mining and induced mutagenesis for functional genomics. He also created a large pool of trained human resource in the area of molecular breeding that has enabled successful product development following his approach.
Dr Mohapatra is recipient of INSA Young Scientist Award, Prof. LSS Kumar Memorial Award, NAAS-Tata Award, IARI-BP Pal Award, DBT Bio-science Award, NASI-Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee Award, Recognition Award of NAAS (Biennium 2013-14), IMS Diamond Jubilee Memorial Award 2016 and Dr. D. Sundaresan Memorial Oration Award 2017. The Indian Genetics Congress and the Indian Society of Agricultural Biochemists felicitated him with Lifetime Achievement Award for his scientific contributions.
Dr. Mohapatra is an esteemed Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, National Academy of Sciences-India, Allahabad and the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi. He has been conferred doctoral degree (honoris causa) by Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology, Bhubaneswar, YS Parmar University of Horticulture & Forestry, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhaya Pashu Chikitsa Vigyan Vishwavidyalaya Evam Go-Anusandhan Sansthan (DUVASU), Mathura, Uttar Pradesh and Siksha `O’ Anusandhan University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
The Society for Advancement of Wheat & Barley Research (SAWBAR) is honoured to confer VS Mathur Memorial Award 2019 on Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra for his commendable contributions in the field of Agriculture and Allied Sciences.