General particulars

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
1.	GENERAL PARTICULARS
Name: Prof. (Dr.) Ajit Varma Designation: Pro-Vice Chancellor, Distinguished Scientist and Professor of Eminence Name of the Institute/University: Amity Institute of Microbial Technology, Amity University Uttar Pradesh Date of Birth: 24/09/1939 Sex (M/F): M
2.	EDUCATIONAL DETAILS (GRADUATION ONWARDS)
S. No.	Institution	Degree Awarded	Year	Field of Study
1	Allahabad University, Allahabad, India	M.Sc.	1959	Microbial Sciences
2	Allahabad University, Allahabad, India	Ph.D.	1964	Microbial Sciences
3.	PROFESSIONAL CAREER (STARTING WITH THE MOST RECENT EMPLOYMENT)
S. No.	Institution	Position	From (Date)	To (Date)
1	Amity Institute of Microbial Technology, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida-201313	Distinguished Scientist & Professor of Eminence,	September 2004	To Till Date
2	Jawahar Lal Nehru University, New Delhi	Professor	1985	2004
3	Jawahar Lal Nehru University, New Delhi	Associate Professor	1975	1984
4	Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi	Senior Microbiologist (Associate Professor)	1971	1974
5	Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi	Microbiologist (Assistant Professor)	1963	1971
4.	HONORS/ AWARDS
Commonwealth Fellowship (Australia) National Research Council (Canada) Alexander von-Humboldt Foundation (Germany) National Science Foundation (USA) Indo-Czechoslovakia Exchange Programme (Prague) Indo-China Fellowship (2011 – 2014) Indo-Westindies Fellowship DAAD Fellowship (Germany) Deutsches BMFT Programme, George-August University, Gottingen (Germany) RAISA Fellowship for Innovative Research in Biotechnology (Italy) Swiss Federal Research Fellowship (Switzerland) BP Koirala Award (Nepal) DFG-INSA Fellowship (Indo-Germany) FAMI Award 2011 (India) Honorary Diploma, UMF, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (2011) Life Time Achievement Award, Bombay University (2011) Special Felicitation for Outstanding Research in the field of microbiology, JNU (2012)
5.	PUBLICATIONS (NUMBERS ONLY)
i. Books: 88 ii. Research Papers, Reports: 374 iii. No. of Ph.D.: 67 iv. Patents: 29 v. No. of D.Sc.: 1

6.		LIST FIVE MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS WITH IMPACT FACTOR RELEVANT TO THE PROPOSED AREA OF WORK (IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER) Details should include: Title, Authors, name of the Journal, issue & page no. year of publication. Also provide summary of the work reported in the publication in not more than 100 words.
Soubhagya Bhuyan, Prasun Bandyopadhyay, Pramod Kumar, Deepak Mishra, Ramraj Prasad, Abha Kumari, Kailash Upadhyaya, Ajit Varma, and Pramod Yadava (2015) Interaction of Piriformospora indica with Azotobacter chroococcum. Nature Scientific Reports. Sept; 5:13911 doi:10.1038/srep13911 Rishabh Sharma, Uma, Sonal Singh, Ajit Verma, Manika Khanuja (2016) Visible light induced bactericidal and photocatalytic activity of hydrothermally synthesized BiVO4 nano-octahedrals. Journal of Photochemistry & Photobiology B: Biology. 162(2016): 266-272. June 2016. Publisher: Elsevier. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jphotobiol.2016.06.035 Priyanka Sharma, Amit Kharkwal, M.Z. Abdin and Ajit Varma (2016) Piriformospora indica-mediated salinity tolerance in Aloe vera plantlets. Symbiosis. Sept 2016 (Online) 72:103–115 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13199-016-0449-0 Uma, Ruchika Bajaj, Diksha Bhola, Sangeeta Singh and Ajit Varma (2017) Biotechnological Applications of Piriformosporaindica (Serendipitaindica) DSM 11827. Advances in Biotechnology & Microbiology. 3(4). May 2017 Madhunita Bakshi, Irena Sherameti, Doreen Meichsner, Johannes Thürich, Ajit Varma, Atul K. Johri, Kai-Wun Yeh and Ralf Oelmüller (2017) Piriformopsora indica Reprograms Gene Expression in Arabidopsis
7		PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE RELEVANT TO THE PROJECT (DO NOT EXCEED 150 WORDS)
Prof Ajit Varma has discovered Piriformospora indica a new and novel Mycorrhizal fungus which promotes the plant growth, production, early seed germination, flowering and fruiting. Root colonization suppresses the disease and sustains soil fertility. The interaction of the fungus with medicinal plant enhances the medicinal value to plants, like Aloe Vera, Haldi, Broccoli, Coleus, Isabgol and Anti Malaria drug in Artemisia. The work on this fungus is being conducted all over the world. And by now over 500 research articles have already appeared and several books from Springer Verlag, Germany. More than 45 students have been awarded Ph.D. degree and one D.Sc. on this fungus. We have supplied this formulation to a large number of farmers and Agriculture Scientists for field trials. Now we are in the process the commercializing the formulation in Taiwan, Portugal, Spain, Italy and USA.
8.	ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS
S. No.	Title of Project		Source of Funds	Amount	Duration (from – to -- )
1	Biofortification of Wheat and Maize with Zinc and Iron Using Endophytic Microorganisms		NASF - ICAR	Rs. 151 Lakh	27-02-2017 -26-02-2020
2	Value addition to plants of agricultural and horticultural importance by application of consortium of root fungal endophyte and nitrogen fixing prokaryote – Azotobacter spp		DST-SEED	Rs. 18.64 lakhs	From 6-05-2015 to 2-05-2017
3	Funds for Improvement of S&T Infrastructure in Universities & Higher Educational Institutions – FIST Program 2014		DST-FIST	Rs 110 lakhs	From 21-11-2014 to 20-11-2019
4	“To understand the mechanism of Zinc Oxide Nanorods on fungus and plant productivity.”		DST – Nano Mission	Rs. 27 Lakhs	06.03.2017 – 05-03-2018
9.	RESEARCH PROJECTS COMPLETED DURING THE LAST THREE YEARS
S. No.	Title of Project		Source of Funds	Amount	Duration (from – to -- )
1	Interaction of Nano-embedded Piriformospora indica with the plant of medicinal importance, Brasicca oleracea var. Botrytis (Broccoli)		BIRAC, DBT	32.50 lakhs	2 years
2	“Unraveling the biochemical and molecular basis of bacterial and fungal endosymbiosis for management.		ICAR-NAFS	Rs. 249.26 lakhs	5 Years
3	Pilot Scale Production of Plant Promoting Fungus Piriformospora indica: A step forward towards Commercialization		SBIRI-BIRAC	40 lakhs	3 Years
It is certified that the above particulars submitted are true and correct.