Dr. Gaurav Zinta is currently working as a Senior Scientist in the Biotechnology Division at CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh. He did his M.Sc. in Biotechnology from Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, H.P. In 2010, Dr. Zinta availed a UA Fellowship to pursue his Ph.D. (2010-2014) from the University of Antwerp, Belgium. In August 2015, he received a PostDoc Fellowship from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) to work with Prof. Jian-Kang Zhu at the Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology, Center of Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, CAS, China.

The key areas of his research interest include plant stress physiology, climate change biology, genome editing, epigenetics, and chemical genetics. The long-term goal of his research is to contribute to global nutrition and food security by bringing stress tolerant and nutritionally rich crops forward. So far, Dr. Zinta has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles and 3 book chapters in top-notch scientific journals, including Nature Communications, PNAS, Global Change Biology, Journal of Experimental Botany, New Phytologist, Plant Cell & Environment, Journal of Hazardous Materials, Biotechnology Advances, Trends in Plant Sciences, etc. He participated in several training courses and conferences across the globe, including Germany, Ireland, Poland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, China etc.

Dr. Zinta is a member of the editorial boards of several scientific journals. For example, he is a Feature Editor for Molecular Plant; Associate Editor for Plant-Environment Interactions, UK, BMC Plant Biology, UK; and CABI Agriculture and Bioscience, UK. He is a Review Editor for Frontiers in Plant Science, and Frontiers in Genetics, Switzerland. Dr. Zinta participates in several science outreach programs.  He was selected as a Plantae Fellow-2019 (American Society of Plant Biology) and eLife Ambassador-2019 to communicate science to a broader audience. Also, he is associated with the Jigyasa – a flagship program of CSIR to connect school students and scientists and extend classroom learning with well-planned research laboratory-based learning.

Dr. Zinta is currently supervising 5 Ph.D. students, 2 PostDocs and 3 Project Research Associates. Also, he is teaching several courses as an Assistant Professor of AsCSIR (Academy of Scientific & Innovative Research). In  2022, Dr. Zinta was awarded Young Scientist Award by the Himalayan Phytopathological Society, H.P.