Dr George Thomas
Director, SciGenom Lab, Kochi

Profile

Dr. George holds Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and did his postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA prior to returning to India as the head of the Molecular Biology Division at SPIC Science Foundation in Chennai, India. Dr. George was a recipient of the National Science Talent Scholarship (NCERT) and Fogarty International Fellowships. Among his many notable achievements is a paper in Nature during his PhD from IISc where he published the organization and bidirectional transcription nature of H2A, H2B and H4 histone genes in rice embryos. Also Dr. George has made extensive contribution in the plant biotechnology area including development of insect resistant rice and tobacco, engineering salt tolerance in crops and other technologies for genetic engineering of crop plants. Dr. George has also mentored a number of PhD students, many of whom have gone on to take positions in both academia and industry in India and abroad. He has served and is a member on several educational, technology and advisory boards. Further Dr. George was instrumental in several successful grant applications during his academic tenure.