Best scientist award was given to Anjan K. Banerjee, PhD. Associate Professor, Professional Experience: Associate Professor, Biology Div. IISER Pune Nov. 2014 - to Present Asst. Professor, Biology Div. IISER Pune July 2008 - Oct. 2014 Post doctoral Research Associate May 2002 - June 2008 Interdepartmental Plant Biology, Iowa State University (ISU), Ames, Iowa, USA. Post doctoral Research Associate June 2001 - May 2002 Center for Plant Transformation, Agronomy Hall, Iowa State University (ISU), Ames, Iowa. USA. Education: Ph. D. Biotechnology, 2001, SPPU (Formerly Univ. of Pune, Pune, (Research work done at National Chemical Laboratory, Pune) M. Sc. Botany, 1992, Tripura University, Suryamaninagar, Tripura, India B. Sc. Botany, 1990, Tripura University, Suryamaninagar, Tripura, India Research Interests:  Long distance RNA transport and signaling, microRNA mediated gene regulation  Plant growth and developmental biology,  Plant Vascular Biology.  Evolution of land plants  Plant sex chromosome  Plant and pathogen interaction- role of small RNAs Awards and honors:  Served as reviewer for International and National peer reviewed journals such as BMC Genomics, J. plant growth regulation, Plant Science, Plant Cell Reports, JXB etc.  Selected Board Member, Int. Plant Mol. Biology (IPMB) congress, Brazil. Oct. 2015.  Visiting Faculty/Contributory faculty at Dept. of Botany, Tripura Univ. since July 2014.  Visiting Faculty at Dept. of Biotechnology, SPPU (Formerly Univ. of Pune). from Jan 2011.  Elected executive board member, All Indian Cell Biology Association, India  Elected life member, Plant Tissue Culture Association (PTCA), India, from January 2010.  CSIR fellowship for Ph. D. Professional membership:  American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB, USA),  Plant Vascular Biology, USA  Society of Indian Cell Biology, India.  Plant Tissue Culture Association (PTCA, India)  Indian Society of Developmental Biologists (InSDB), Resource Person:  Served as course evaluator for TERI University, New Delhi, India, 2008.  Served as course teacher for “Research and development needs in transgenic farming era” in winter school, University of agricultural sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka.  Advances in Life Science research- Refresher course at Pune University, Pune, 2009.  Convener, 35th PTCA National Meeting, IISER Pune  Coordinator, DST, Inspire Science Camp for 2011 and 2012  Coordinator, DST, Inspire Organizers of the Science Camp (2010)  Chairperson, Animal Ethics Committee, IISER Pune since 2015  Member, Purchase committee, IISER Pune Since January 2015  Member, Undergraduate Academic Award Committee, IISER Pune  Member, Committee for high value equipment usage, IISER Pune  Member, Undergraduate curriculum and examination committee, IISER Pune since 2013  Faculty member, IISER Tirupati cell, Tirupati, India since 2015  Chairperson, Purchase committee, IISER Pune from 15th April, 2016 Selected Publications and MS under review: 1. Mahajan A, Kondhare K, Rajabhoj M, Kumar A, Ghate A, Ravindran N, Habib F, Siddappa S and Banerjee A.K, (2016) Regulation, over-expression and target gene identification of Potato Homeobox 15 (POTH15) - a class-I KNOX gene in potato (Provisionally accepted in J. Exp. Botany). 2. Ghate T · Sharma S · Kondhare K, Hannapel D.J and Banerjee A.K, (2016) The mobile RNAs, StBEL11 and StBEL29, suppress growth of roots and tubers in potato (Under revision in Plant Mol. Biol.) 3. Santin S, Bhogale S, Fantino E, Grandellis C, Banerjee A K and Ulloa R.M, (2016) StCDPK1 expression pattern and its post-transcriptional regulation by microRNA390 in potato (Revision submitted in Planta) 4. Sinha S, Karmakar K, Devani RS, Banerjee J, Sinha RK and Banerjee A.K, (2016) Preparation of mitotic and meiotic metaphase chromosomes from young leaves and flower buds of Coccinia grandis (Accepted in Bioprotocol) 5. Ghadge A, Karmakar K, Devani R, Banerjee J, Boominathan M, Sinha R, Sinha S and Banerjee A.K (2014) Flower development, pollen fertility and sex expression analysis of three sexual phenotypes of C. grandis. BMC Plant Biology. 14: 325