ICAR-CENTRAL CITRUS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Dr. Ashis K. Das born on 8th July, 1967 in Hooghly District of West Bengal, obtained his B.Sc. (Ag.) Hons. Degree from Visva Bharti University, Santiniketan, West Bengal and Master's degree in Mycology and Plant Pathology from Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi in 1991. He then worked for his PhD at Nuclear Research Laboratory, IARI, New Delhi on detection and management of brinjal little leaf, a phytoplasma- induced disease where he succeeded in developing some fluorescent probes for its rapid detection. He completed his Ph.D. degree from IARI, New Delhi in 1996. He stood first in Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Examination 1992, conducted by Agricultural Scientist Recruitment Board (ASRB) in the discipline of Plant Pathology and subsequently joined in ARS as Scientist at ICAR- Central Citrus Research Institute (CCRI) (formerly, National Research Centre for Citrus), Nagpur on 24th July, 1995. Since joining at CCRI, he worked on development of Molecular diagnostics, strainal characterization and integrated management of citrus fungal and bacterial diseases.

Presently his area of working includes molecular identification, genetic diversity analysis and developing rapid diagnostics for Phytophthora spp., Huanglongbing, HLB (greening) and canker bacterium and formulating integrated management strategy for combating these economically important citrus diseases. Dr. Das, till date, has published more than 40 research papers in national and international journals, 9 popular articles, 2 books and 12 extension bulletin/ folders, 14 book chapter/ review articles. He visited Orlando, Florida, USA to deliver the talk on "Citrus Greening (Huanglongbing) Disease in India" at the International Research Conference on Huanglongbing (December 1-5, 2008) and also participated in the 12th International Conference on Plant pathogenic bacteria held in Reunion Island, France from June 7-11, 2010. He has undergone three months training in the area of ‘Marker assisted selection for diseases resistance’ at Citrus Research and Education Centre (CREC), University of Florida, USA during 2011-’12. He is a Life Member of Indian Society of Citriculture and Indian Phytopathological Socity. He has been the principal investigator of several in-house and externally funded projects (PhytoFuRa). He is also engaged in providing laboratory-based and field-oriented training on citrus disease diagnostics and management aspects to the scientists, technical personnel, extension workers and citrus growers across the country. He may be contacted at dasashiskumar@hotmail.com.