![](https://arifim.com/uploads/dr_saxena1.png)
Dr. Anil Saxena
Technical Director and International Operations ( Ph.D. in Microbiology from IARI)
Dr. A.K. Saxena did his Graduation and
Post-graduation from Delhi University in Botany and Ph.D. in Microbiology from
IARI, New Delhi. He was awarded the Gold medal for the Academic performance in
Ph.D. He joined Agricultural Research Services in 1989 and since then he worked
in various capacities at IARI. He also served at National Bureau of
Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Mau for four years.Dr. Saxena
contributed immensely in the area of plant-microbe interactions and molecular
diversity of bacteria. He developed bacterial inoculants, including novel
biofilmed formulations, Zn and K solubilizers and NPK providing formulations
for integrated pest and nutrient management of various crops. He identified
chickpea – Rhizobium combinations for saline soils and also developed PGPR
formulations for enhancing the yield of mungbean and arhar. He developed simple
diagnostic approach for identification of Bacillus sp. and also
species-specific primers and probes for identification of Macrophomina
phaseolina and Fusarium udum. First attempt in the country was made to sequence
the complete genome of Mesorhizobium ciceri Ca 181, and seven other novel
bacteria isolated from extreme habitats were sequenced. He documented and
characterized bacterial diversity of hot springs, salt lakes, cold deserts and
acidic soils of India at molecular level, leading to development of germplasm
collection and database of bacteria from extreme environments. Novel bacteria
able to grow at high salt concentration, high and low pH, high and low
temperatures were identified. He has deposited more than 1900 gene sequences to
NCBI GenBank. He has successfully transferred the technologies developed at the
Division of Microbiology to entrepreneurs throughout the country, leading to
increased revenue generation and coverage of land under microbial inoculants.
Dr. Saxena carried out 20 different
projects funded by various agencies like DBT, DST, World Bank and ICAR. He is a
member of many professional societies. He has to his credit more than 20 book
chapters and 120 Research publications both in National and International
Journals. For his contributions to teaching he was awarded the Best Teacher
award of IARI. He was awarded FAO fellowship twice for post doctoral work at
The Netherlands and Israel and World Bank fellowship for visit to Canada. Till
date he has guided 8 Ph.D. and 11 M.Sc students and at present guiding three
Ph.D. students. He was elected as fellow of National Academy of Agricultural
Sciences and Indian Academy of Microbiological Sciences and is a recipient of
XIV Shri Hari Krishna Shastri Memorial award. Distinguished Scientist award of
Asian PGPR Society and Prof G. Rangaswami award of AMI . He worked as Head,
Division of Microbiology IARI from 2009 -2015