By Timmanna
Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi on Friday announced the appointment of Dr. Subhash Chander as a new Director of ICAR-National Research Centre for Integrated Pest Management, New Delhi, which is a key institute mandated for the adoption of IPM technologies to reduce the cost of production and minimizing environmental and public health hazards in India.
Dr. Subhash Chander obtained a B Sc. (Agril.) degree from the CSKHPKV Palampur (HP), MSc., and Ph.D. (Entomology) with Gold medals from ICAR-IARI, New Delhi. He then joined as ARS Scientist at Division of Entomology, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi in 1991.
Prior to his current appointment, he was the Professor and eminent Rice entomologist at Division of Entomology, ICAR-IARI. Dr. Subhash Chander has contributed to the development and validation of the InfoCrop model for simulating crop-pest interactions, the development of insect population simulation models, climate change impact assessment on pests, and pest management adaptations to climate change. Devised sequential sampling plans and established economic injury levels (EILs) for rice, wheat, and mustard pests; determined multi-species EILs for rice pests; carried out agro-ecological zoning of stem borer and planthopper incidence in rice using pest-weather models and GIS; developed spectral signatures for rice pests using remote sensing techniques. He guided 16 Ph.D. and 5 M.Sc. Students at the Division. He was famous as students Professor, friendly mentor, and humble human being among young researchers in Agricultural Sciences.
Dr. Subhash Chander handled 14 external funded projects and 15 in-house projects of IARI and he is a prolific writer and published 150+ research papers, 50+ book chapters and also delivered 50 invited lectures in various national and international conferences and symposia, given 90+ training lectures in different institutes and SAUs and also attended 50+ TV and Radio talks on various aspects of agricultural science and entomology in particular. He is known for his simplicity and working with farmers at the field level.
Dr. Subhash Chander is the Joint Secretary of the Entomological Society of India and also chaired various national level committees of ICAR. He was honoured with prestigious awards such as ICAR Bharat Ratna Dr. C. Subramaniam Award (2014) for outstanding teachers, Sukumar Basu Memorial award (2009-2010), Dr. Krishna Mohan Singh memorial award (2013-2015) and IARI Best Teacher Award (2007).
Dr. Subhash Chander said "the NCIPM has a glorious 32 years old legacy of impactful contributions to develop and promote Integrated Pest Management technologies for major crops with minimum ecological implications. I will strive to uphold this tradition and take the Institute to even greater heights in the coming years". He also added, "it is an honour and privilege for me to be appointed as the Director of NCIPM".
The appointment of Dr. Subash Chander will accelerate Integrated Pest Management research and adoptation at the farm level.
Dr. Timmanna is a Scientist at the Division of Entomology, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, and also the Associate Editor of Indian Entomologist.
Email: thimsento@gmail.com