Hyderabad: International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics’ (ICRISAT) highest award for research was announced by its governing board on Tuesday.
Dr Mamta Sharma and Dr Pooja Bhatnagar, Mathur are joint recipients of the Doreen Margaret Mashler Award for 2018, for significant work in their respective research fields of plant pathology and biotechnology at the ICRISAT.
The Doreen Margaret Mashler Award is an endowment by Dr W. T. Mashler, who was Chairman of ICRISAT’s governing board for three years and instrumental in its founding in 1972.
Instituted in memory of his wife, it recognises the most significant work carried out in the previous year. Winners are selected by the board based on nominations received.
Dr Mamta Sharma specialises in epidemiology of plant diseases and pathogens, focusing on disease resistant breeding in chickpea and pigeonpea, two of ICRISAT’s mandate crops.
Dr Pooja Bhatnagar Mathur, worked towards the successful isolation and characterisation of the gene responsible for cytoplasmic male sterility in pigeonpea.
As a result, ICRISAT filed its first ever patent in 2016-17.
