Atmaram Bhairav Joshi

Background

Atmaram Bhairav Joshi was born on 17 of November, 1916 in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India.

Education

Atmaram Bhairav Joshi graduated (Bachelor of Science Honours) from Nagpur University in 1937. After securing a post graduate diploma from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi (IARI) in 1939, he passed his Master of Science in 1945 and Doctor of Philosophy in 1950 from the University of Cambridge.

Career

His career started in 1940 as a research assistant at his alma mater, IARI, where he rose in ranks to become a professor, the dean of post graduate studies (1958-1965) and the director of the institution (1965-1966).

In 1966, he was posted at the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) as the deputy director general, a post he held till 1972 when he returned to IARI as its director. After superannuation in 1977, he was appointed as the vice-chancellor of the Mahatama Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri and worked there till his retirement in 1980.

Joshi was a member of the Task Force on Agricultural Education of the Kothari Commission (1964-1966) set up by the Government of India to advise on general principles and policies for the development of education in India. He was the co-ordinator of the ICAR sponsored Wheat Research Project (1960-1966). During his tenure as the vice-chancellor of the MPKV university, he also served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the prime minister of India (1972-1976).

Joshi is known to have conducted cytogenetic research on a number of crops such as sesame, chickpea, tobacco, and Capsicum and research on the evolutionary origin of Okra (Bhindi) and Panicum maximum (fodder grass). He introduced crop improvement of wheat and cotton through quantitative genic exploitation and is known to have contributed for the success of the Green Revolution in India in the 1960s and 1970s. His researches were published by way of over 300 articles which included many monographs on sesame and cotton. He also guided 45 post graduate and doctoral students in their researches.

Achievements

• Several Indian universities such as G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantanagar, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, and Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Agricultural University, Parbhani (Maharashtra) awarded him Doctor of Science (honoris causa).
  
  In 1976, the Government of India awarded him the civilian honour of Padma Shri and he received the Norman Borlaug Award from Coromandel International the same year.
  
  The Indian National Science Academy elected him as a fellow in 1961 and selected him for the BD Tilak Award lecture in 1984. He was an elected fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi Indian Academy of Sciences, Maharashtra Academy of Sciences, Pune, the Indian Botanical Society, and the Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding.
  
  The Indian Agricultural Research Institute instituted the A.B. Joshi Memorial Award in 2002, in his honour and organised an annual lecture under the name, A.B. Joshi Memorial award lecture.

Membership

• He was a President.

  Indian Society of Genetics & Plant Breeding , India

• Indian Society of Agronomy , India

• Indian Council of Agricultural Research , India

• Indian Central Cotton Committee , India