Prof. N. Raghuram is a Professor at University School of Bio-Technology, GGSIPU, Delhi. He is currently the Founder-Head of the Centre for Sustainable Nitrogen and Nutrient Management at the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University in New Delhi, India. He is a biologist by training and has been a faculty member of life sciences and biotechnology since 1997. He specialises in molecular biology and functional genomics, with particular reference to plant signal transduction in stress and nutrient responses, nitrate responsive gene expression and nitrogen use efficiency, especially in rice and Arabidopsis. He characterized the phenotype for nitrogen use efficiency in rice and shortlisted candidate genes for its improvement. He resurrected the role of GPCR in plant G-protein signalling and brought out their role in biotic stress and nutrient responses. Earlier, he characterized the genes of N-metabolism and its regulation in the cyanobacterium Arthrospira (Spirulina). He also collaborates with biomedical scientists, computational physicists/biologists. His broader interests include environment, health, education, science dissemination and policy. .
He is Emeritus Chair of the International Nitrogen Initiative (INI, 2019-2022), Steering Committee member of the UN Environment Global Partnership on Nutrient Management (GPNM), President of the Sustainable India Trust and Society for conservation of Nature and was previously Co-founder of the Indian Nitrogen Group and honorary Director of the South Asian Nitrogen Centre of INI. In these roles, he facilitated interdisciplinary international consultations on the research and policy aspects of reactive nitrogen and other nutrients in agriculture, industry and environment, leading to the India-led resolution on 'Sustainable Nitrogen Management' in the UN Environment Assembly in March 2019. As an editor of the Springer journal, Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants, he put it among the top few plant journals in Asia and among the top quartile of all plant journals globally. As the Secretary and Vice-President, Society for Scientific Values, he promoted ethics and campaigned against misconduct in Indian science and defended its reputation.
He obtained his M.Sc.(Life Sci.) Ed from NCERT (Utkal University, 1984) and worked on the cloning and expression of bacterial cellulase genes for his M.Phil (University of Pune, 1987). As a Research Associate at the Thapar Corporate R&D Centre, Patiala (1987-88), he isolated osmotolerant yeasts and developed the technology for ethanol production from molasses using whole-cell immobilized column bioreactor, which was eventually commercialized. He obtained his Ph.D in Life Sciences (Jawaharlal Nehru University, 1994), for his work on signal transduction and regulation of nitrate reductase gene expression in maize. After a brief post-doctoral stint as a CSIR Research Associate at JNU, he moved to the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, as Research Associate and Correspondent for its magazine, Down to Earth (1995-97).
Between 1997 and 2002, he worked as a Lecturer at the Department of Life Sciences, University of Mumbai, where he designed curricula and taught molecular biology and biochemistry at the Masters level. He was a visiting guest faculty at the Centre for Biotechnology, JNU in 2001, where he designed and taught a course in plant biotechnology at the Masters level. He was a INSA-Royal Society Visiting Fellow at the IACR-LARS, UK, in 2001.
He taught 18 courses for B.Tech/M.Tech/M.Sc./Ph.D and mentored 54 researchers for Ph.D/ M.Tech/M.Sc./B.Tech so far in 3 universities and held research projects and consultancies from government and industry. As a Co-founder of the Indian Nitrogen Group, Director of the South Asian Nitrogen Centre and Steering Committee member of the UNEP Global Partnership on Nutrient Management, he facilitated interdisciplinary international consultations on the research and policy aspects of reactive nitrogen and other nutrients in agriculture, industry and environment. As the Editor-in-Chief of the Springer journal, Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants, he put it among the top few plant journals in Asia and ahead of 272 globally. As Vice President, Society for Scientific Values, he enhanced its reputation in India and abroad.
Microarray data submissions IN GEO (ncbi) ONLINE
SEQUENCE SUBMISSIONS IN GENBANK (NCBI) ONLINE