Rakesh Bhatnagar

Background

About Rakesh Bhatnagar

Prof. Rakesh Bhatnagar pursued his Ph.D. from the Department of Biochemistry, National Sugar Institute, Kanpur followed by working in Freiburg University, Germany, University of Caen, France and NIH & USAMRIID, USA. He pioneered the teaching of Biotechnology at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, the first of its kind in the country. Prof. Bhatnagar is well known for developing recombinant vaccine against anthrax. This technology has been transferred to the industry and the vaccine is undergoing human clinical trials. Prof. Bhatnagar (a former Vice Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University, University and Kumaun University, Nainital) in addition to being J. C. Bose Fellow, is an elected Fellow of all three major Science Academies of India namely Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, Indian Academy of Science, Bangalore, National Academy of Science, Allahabad. With >190 research papers to his credit, his publications have received citations. He has supervised more than 58 Ph.D students. Prof. Bhatnagar’s research has been ranked 7th (The first six were from Pasteur Institute, Harvard Medical School, NIH and USAMRIID) in the anthrax research globally. Recognizing with extraordinary contribution in the field of research and innovation he has been awarded with many prestigious awards and recognition few of them are President's Award for Best Innovation by President of India, ICMR Award for Outstanding research work in the field of Immunology by ICMR, GoI; Ranked 7th among the top ten eminent researchers publishing commendable research papers on anthrax by Open source Global Anthrax Research Literature etc. Prof. Bhatnagar has been a successful administrator and institution builder. He has served the Jawaharlal Nehru University at various important positions like Chairperson, Director and Dean. Because of his efforts School of Biotechnology has been ranked at No.1 biotechnology teaching programme in the country consistently. He has created a world class Biological Safety Laboratory Level During his term of Vice-Chancellorship of Banaras Hindu University, he has strived hard to take the University to a new level of excellence.