Endowment Lectures

Department of Agrl Microbiology and School of Post-Graduate Studies jointly organized "PG Education Endowment lecture" at TNAU. Dr. D. J. Bagyaraj, INSA Scientist & Chairman, CNBRCD, Bangalore presented the Endowment lecture on "Soil Biodiversity: Current Scenario" on 29-8-2019 at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore.

  • Welcome address by Dr. V. Gomathi, Professor & Head (AGM)
  • Introduction by Dr. R. Santhi, Director, DNRM
  • Opening remarks by Dr. J. S. Kennedy, Dean (SPGS)
  • Presidential address by Dr. K. Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, TNAU
  • Vote of Thanks by Dr. K. Ilamurugu, Professor (AGM)




Download the endowment lecture (PDF)

About the Author

Dr. Bagyaraj was born in Bangalore on 9th October, 1940. He completed his graduation in 1961, post graduation in 1963 and Ph.D. in Agricultural Microbiology in 1972 from UAS, Bangalore with Gold Medal for having secured CGPA of 4 out of 4. He worked in the Department of Agricultural Microbiology, UAS, Bangalore in various capacities from Asst. Prof. to Head of the Dept. from 1966 – 2000. He had his post-doctoral training at New Zealand, Australia, UK and USA. Currently he is INSA Hon. Scientist and Chairman, Center for Natural Biological Resources and Community Development, Bangalore.

He is considered to be a pioneering scientist in the area of mycorrhizal fungi. He has published 400 research papers, 101 review articles and 11 books. He has mentored nearly 50 M.Sc. and 23 Ph.D. students. He has been the Principal Investigator of 33 completed research projects and 2 on-going projects.

Dr. Bagyaraj has been invited either to deliver lectures or evaluate projects on mycorrhiza in different parts of the world. He has been an Expert Committee Member of several funding agencies in the country and overseas like ICAR, CSIR, DST, DBT, ICFRE, AICAR (Australia), IFS (Sweden), UNEP and FAO from time to time.

Dr. Bagyaraj received several awards and honours that include Shome Memorial Award; SR Vyas Memorial Award; Rangaswami Memorial Award; Prof. T. S. Sadasivan Lecture Award; Dr. V Agnihotrudu Memorial Lecture Award, Dr. R. Y. Roy Memorial Lecture Award, Dr. Natarajan Memorial Award, Recognition Award by NABS and several Life Time Achievement Awards; the latest by Mycological Society of India conferred in 2018 by the Renowned Mycologist Dr. Hawksworth, U.K. He is a Fellow of most of the National Academies in the country like INSA, NASI, NAAS, and is the Vice President of NABS. He is the President of the Indian Society of Soil Biology and Ecology from 2002 till to date and also has been the President of MSI during 2011-2012. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Soil Biology and Ecology, and Member, Editorial Board of Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. B. and 4 more Journals. He is currently busy as Convener for the Lecture Workshops/ Refresher Courses sponsored by the 3 National Science Academies of India for the benefit of college students and teachers.

Prof. Bagyaraj was invited by the European Commission to contribute on mycorrhizal fungi for the Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas (only Indian scientist invited) which was released in May, 2016 at Belgium. Honouring his contributions a mycorrhizal fungus has been named as Glomus bagyarajii.

An inspiring teacher and active research worker and educationist Prof. Bagyaraj is internationally respected for his dedication to Science.

More details: https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=bCjvss0AAAAJ&hl=en (GOOGLE SCHOLAR)

Dr. D. J. Bagyaraj,

Centre for Natural Biological Resources and Community Development (CNBRCD), Bangalore

Email: djbagyaraj@gmail.com