Y S AhlawatYashvir S. Ahlawat was born in a village Kandera in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh in 1943. He obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D degrees from Agra University. He carried out his research assignments at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, (IARI) New elhi and its Regional Stations in Shimla and Kalimpong. During his research career he discovered several virus and phytoplasma diseases infecting agricultural and horticultural crops new to India and World. However, his major interest had been in virus and virus like diseases of fruit crops especially in citrus. At IARI, Prof. Ahlawat worked at the advanced centre for Plant Virology developed with the assistance of UNDP of FAO and headed Virology Unit of IARI. During his 40 years of research career, Dr. Ahlawat guided 10 Ph.D. and 4 M.Sc. students. He published over 150 research papers in reputed scientific journals. He handled both National and International projects on virus diagnostics, HRD, and National Facility for Virus diagnosis and quality control of tissue culture-raised plants. Under HRD project, Dr. Ahlawat conducted several group and hands- on training son various aspects of plant virology including one refresher course for senior professors from Indian Universities on molecular diagnosis of plant viruses.The research contributions made by Prof. Ahlawat have been recognized nationally and internationally. Nationally, he received several honours and awards from Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Indian Phytopathological Society (IPS), and Indian Society of Citriculture(ISC) for outstanding research contributions in plant virology. Internationally, he was awarded James M. and Adeline Wallace Research award 1998 by International Organization of Citrus Virologists, Universty of California for his outstanding contribution in citriculture. Dr. Ahlawat is a member and fellow of several national and international professional societies and served them in various capacities. He was elected as President, IPS in 2005 and served as Secretary General and Vice-President in Indian Society of Citriculture. As FAO Fellow, Dr Ahlawat worked at the University of California, Riverside and at Instituto Biologico at Sao Paulo, Brazil. He visited University of California again as IBPGR Expert to develop guidelines for safe movement of citrus germplasm. He participated and chaired scientific sessions in several national and international symposia in India and abroad. Professor Ahlawat visited INRA at Bordeaux in France twice as visiting Professor. He was consultant to the Royal Govt. of Bhutan and visited University of Florida, CREC, Lake Alfred in 2010. He edited 8books, contributed several book chapters and popular articles. After his superannuation in 2005, he had been working as Emeritus Scientist ICAR and a consultant to CABI and currently working as ES, Department of Science and Technology, Govt. Of India. Read More Read Less