Organizing Committee Member
Sukumar Saha
Professor
Professor
USA
Biography
Dr. Sukumar Saha has a total of thirty five years of professional research experience. He demonstrated outstanding stature and received significant recognition as an international authority in cotton genomics and cytogenetics for the development of genetic and cytogenetic resources that are being used by the scientists in the USA and around the world. He made a significant impact in three broad research areas: 1) molecular marker development and mapping, 2) interspecific chromosome substitution (CS) line development from G. barbadense, G. tomentosum and G. mustelinum and 3) a patent document submission to develop improved cotton lines using the emerging techniques of gene silencing. Dr. Saha in a collaborative project, developed, evaluated and released a unique set of backcrossed Gossypium barbadense (Pima 3-79) CS lines (CS-B) in a G. hirsutum background. These lines are near-isogenic with the exception of different substituted chromosomes from Pima 3-79. He also made a major contribution in developing SSR and SNP markers, a critical first step for the use of PCR-based marker technologies in the cotton breeding program. He was one of eight founding scientists of International Cotton Genome Initiative organization (ICGI), currently with over 600 members from the major cotton growing countries, to facilitate collaborative research work on cotton genomics and genetics at the global level. He was awarded the 2010 Cotton Geneticist award from the National Cotton Council of USA and ICAC Cotton Researcher of the year 2011 award by the International Cotton Advisory Committee. Dr. Saha’s research productivity is well documented in over 90 peer-reviewed journal articles, one germplasm release notice, a co-edited book, a patent document, additional multiple papers and abstracts in presentations at conferences. He is currently serving as the editor in chief of American Journal of Plant Sciences.
Research Area
Genetics and Cytogenetics