Dr Amitabh is currently serving at the Program Director, National Genomics and Genotyping Facility (NGGF)-DBT, NIPGR, New Delhi. Prior to that he held several leadership roles in DuPont Pioneer at the DuPont Knowledge Centre (DKC) including that of the site leader for the Ag Biotech group, Chair of the Site Leadership Council (SLC) for multiple times, and most recently as the Leader, Trait Discovery, Corteva AgriscienceTM, DKC. Prior to this role, Amitabh served as Senior Research Manager, Trait discovery and optimization. He was also part of the global Trait Discovery Leadership Team (TDLT) and Asia Pacific Plant Breeding Leadership Team. Key focus area of his group was novel gene discovery for various traits (Ag Traits, Input and Output traits), including developing competencies such as CRISPR Cas enabled advanced breeding. His group employed both native traits, advanced breeding as well as transgenic approaches for crop improvement. He built a state-of-the art and best-in class facility for cutting edge research and development for the organization.
Dr Amitabh completed his Ph.D. in Plant Molecular Biology from University of Delhi South Campus, New Delhi India. Subsequently he got trained in high-throughput rice genomics at the Rice Genome Research Program, Japan on a Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India fellowship and after returning to India helped to jump start the Indian Rice Genome Sequencing Program (IRGSP), which was part of the International Rice Genome Sequencing Program (IRGSP).
Before joining DuPont Pioneer, Amitabh did his post-doctoral studies (2002-2007) with Prof Dave Jackson at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, USA. During this time, he worked on two multi-million-dollar NSF funded projects on Arabidopsis and maize on cell biology and genomics.
Dr Amitabh is passionate about access of latest technologies to the farmers and improvement of farm productivity. He enjoys watching cricket whenever time permits and is a self-professed foodie.