Students

Current Ph.D. students

Ratnadeep Bhattacharjee

Ratnadeep is an employee of Corteva Agriscience and is pursuing his part-time Ph.D. in our lab. He works on high throughput genotyping platforms to accelerate genetic gain in various crops. For his Ph.D. research, Ratnadeep brings in his experience in translational research towards crop improvement and product development.

Atish Behera

Atish is currently working towards understanding the signaling mechanisms in PGPR mediated abiotic stress tolerance in Arabidopsis. Atish has a M.Sc. in Biotechnology from Pondicherry University.

Priyanka Roy

Priyanka has a M.Sc degree in Agricultural Biotechnology from Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam.She is working on various aspects of plant-PGPR interaction in rice.

Adarsh M.V.

Adarsh is armed with a Masters Degree in Agricultural Sciences from Kerala Agriculture University. His Ph.D. research is in the area of conditional pathogenesis in plant-rhizobacterial interaction.

Swapna Paidi

Swapna Paidi is an employee of Corteva Agriscience and is pursuing a Part Time Ph.D. in our lab, under the BITS IMPACT programme. She is working on the role of beneficial rhizobacteria on post harvest traits in crops.

Bolisetti Teja Naga Sai

Teja has completed his M.Sc. degree in Botany from Central University of Punjab. His Ph.D. research involves the translational aspects of plant-PGPR interaction in crop species.

Swapnil Gorakh Temkar

Swapnil has completed his B.Tech. in Biotechnology from Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth (VNMKV), Parbhani, Maharashtra. He is an interdisciplinary Ph.D. student, working under the co-supervision of Prof. Sajeli Begum from Pharmacy Department. His research pertains to the identification, extraction, and application of bioactive compounds from soil bacteria for plant growth and development.

Anirudh Kumar

Anirudh is a part-time Ph.D. student, presently employed in Go Agro Swaccha Organics And Life Sciences LLP. He is armed with M.Sc. in Biotechnology from Osmania University, Hyderabad. His research objectives involve the application of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria in vegetable crops.

Graduated Ph.D. students

Nikhil P.T.

Nikhil P.T. defended his Ph.D. thesis in March, 2025. He was working on different mechanisms of PGPR-mediated abiotic stress tolerance in rice and Arabidopsis.

Raunak Sharma

Raunak Sharma defended her Ph.D. thesis in February 2025. She was working on different aspects of the molecular mechanisms involved in plant-rhizobacterial interaction for abiotic stress tolerance. Her current affiliation is JoVE.

Raja Gopalan N.S.

Raja Gopalan defended his Ph.D. thesis in April, 2024. His work primarily focussed on understanding the unusual phenomenon of conditional pathogenesis in PGPR.

Current affiliation: Raj is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Plant Hormone Biology Group at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Daipayan Ghosh, Ph.D.

Daipayan defended his Ph.D. thesis in June 2019. His research focused on mechanisms in PGPR- mediated drought tolerance in plants with emphasis on the metabolism of the compatible osmolyte, proline and phytohormones.

Current affiliation: Scientist (Molecular Biology), Pathkind Labs, Mankind Pharma, Gurgaon, India.

Sunetra Sen, Ph.D.

Sunetra defended her Ph.D. thesis in June 2019. Her research focused on mechanisms in PGPR-mediated drought tolerance in plants with emphasis on the metabolism of important stress responsive molecules called polyamines.

Current affiliation: Editorial Reviewer, Cactus Communications, Mumbai, India.