Dr. G M Nair - Professor & Dean

Dr. G. Mohanadasan Nair, currently Professor & Head, Department of Plant Science is Dean, School of Biological Sciences. He has a track record of being associated with four Universities in the country on various capacities. He was Professor & Head, Departments of Botany and Biotechnology, University of Kerala has more than 35 years of research experience in the fields of Cell-Biology, Plant Biotechnology, Chemical prospecting, Biodiversity Conservation and genomics. After his Post-Graduation from Kerala University, he had joined for his Ph. D at Sardar Patel University, Gujarat and received his degree in 1980 and served the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda for five years as a faculty in Botany and Coordinator of Biotechnology Programme of the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India for 3 years. He has Thirty three years of PG teaching experience and has successfully guided several students in Cell-Biology and Plant Biotechnology. 21 students were awarded PhD and ten students are working at present. He has Guided 38 M. Phil students and about 49 M. Sc students for their project work. He has published more than 120 research papers in National and International peer reviewed journals with high impact factors. He also has published several popular articles, talks on frontier areas in Botany and Biotechnology in AIR and participated in panel discussions in Visual media, edited 4 books and co-authored one book on “Star Trees”. He has presented more than 150 papers and chaired sessions in various International and National conferences in India and abroad. Dr. Nair is a trained electronmicroscopist and received his training from Prof. M. V. Parthasarathy, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York and at Jaslok Hospital Mumbai. He has handled Phillips 200 and Jeol 100 Electronmicroscopes and has hands on training in all frontier areas of Biotechnology and Molecular Biology. Dr. Nair is recipient of many awards and recognitions, including ISCA Young Scientist Award and Hari Om Research Award. He is a member of several academic (University of Kerala, Calicut, MGU, CUSAT and Avinasalingam University, Coimbatore) and professional bodies and was the Chairman of the Boards of Studies Biotechnology and in Botany of the University of Kerala. He also has held several additional responsibilities in the University; as Vice Chairman of the Credit and Semester System, University of Kerala, Convener NAAC Steering Committee, Convener of the University Consultancy Cell. He was the Hon. Director for the Inter-University Centre for genomics and Gene Technology, University of Kerala, an establishment of Government of Kerala, for inter-university interaction research facilitation in all aspects of genomics technology and currently is attached to the centre as Senior Advisor. The Centre caters to the needs of the University and College teachers and Students of Kerala in empowering them in frontier areas of genomics through offering training workshops and acting as an outsourcing centre. The Centre has well equipped laboratories for genome analysis of plants, animals and microbes.
Dr. Nair has served as the Director of Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Palode, Kerala on deputation during 2001-2005. He had spearheaded several novel programmes and gave a face-lift to the Institute during his tenure as Director and brought several National and International Programmes in the Institute. Dr. Nair is holding office of the President of Indian Botanical Society (Kerala Chapter) and past president of Society for Biotechnologists (India). He was a Member of Expert delegation on medicinal Plants of Govt. of India to Nepal and Sr Lanka (2003) and Expert on IK in the distance learning programme of the World Bank. He is currently an Expert Member in the SERB Fast Track Programme of the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India.