Sudhir Kumar Sopory (born 7 January 1948) is an Indian educationist, plant physiologist, scientist and former vice chancellor of

Jawaharlal Nehru University Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a public major research university located in New Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university is known for leading faculties and r ...

, New Delhi. He is known to be the first to purify a

protein kinase C In cell biology, Protein kinase C, commonly abbreviated to PKC (EC 2.7.11.13), is a family of protein kinase enzymes that are involved in controlling the function of other proteins through the phosphorylation of hydroxyl groups of serine and t ...

activity from plants and is credited with the identification of

topoisomerase DNA topoisomerases (or topoisomerases) are enzymes that catalyze changes in the topological state of DNA, interconverting relaxed and supercoiled forms, linked (catenated) and unlinked species, and knotted and unknotted DNA. Topological issues i ...

as a substrate of protein kinase C. He is an elected Fellow of several major Indian science academies and

The World Academy of Sciences The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) is a merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting 1,000 scientists in some 70 countries. Its principal aim is to promote scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable devel ...

(TWAS) and is a recipient of many honours, including the 1987 Shanti Swarup Bhatangar Prize, the highest Indian award in the science and technology categories. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...

, in 2007, for his contributions to science and technology.

Biography

Born on 7 January 1948, Sopory secured his graduate degree (BSc) in 1966 and postgraduate degree (MSc) in 1968 from

Sri Pratap College Sri Pratap College, commonly known as SP College, is an academic and professional college in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. The college has been accredited by NAAC with an 'A' Grade. It is the oldest institute of higher education in the ...

Sri Nagar Srinagar (English: , ) is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies in the Kashmir Valley on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, and Dal and Anchar lakes. The city is known for its natu ...

of the

University of Kashmir The University of Kashmir (U-K, UoK), informally known as Kashmir University (KU), is a collegiate public state university located on the western side of Dal Lake in the city of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, India which was established in 194 ...

. Subsequently, he moved to Delhi to start his career by joining

University of Delhi Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...

as a member of faculty and pursued his doctoral studies there to obtain a PhD in plant molecular biology in 1973. After securing the doctoral degree, he joined

in 1973 as an assistant professor and worked there till his superannuation in 1996, holding positions such as associate professor (1978–1984), professor (1985–1996) and Hostel warden. In between, he worked at various overseas educational institutions;

Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research The Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research was founded in Müncheberg, Germany in 1928 as part of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft. The founding director, Erwin Baur, initiated breeding programmes with fruits and berries, and basic resear ...

, Cologne, (1976–1978),

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

at their Department of Botany as a visiting

Fulbright fellow The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

(1981–1982), USDA Plant Molecular Biology Laboratory, Maryland and

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...

as a visiting Humboldt Professor (1991–1992). After his superannuation, he joined

International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) was established as a project of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in 1983. The Organisation has three Component laboratories with over 45 ongo ...

(ICGEB) New Delhi, as a group leader of research in plant molecular biology in 1997, and became the interim director of the institution in 2010. In 2011, he was appointed as the vice chancellor of

, a post he held till 13 January 2016).

Legacy

During his researches at

, Cologne, Sopory developed a plant breeding methodology to produce monohaploids of potato, in 1978. His researches at

assisted in the discovery of the "role of calcium and calmodulin" in higher plants and, while in Maryland, he worked on

D1 protein D1, D01, D.I, D.1 or D-1 can refer to: Science and technology Biochemistry and medicine * ATC code D01 ''Antifungals for dermatological use'', a subgroup of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System * Dopamine receptor D1, a prote ...

to find the mechanism behind it. In the early Nineties, he worked under R. Hermann on ''promoter analysis of light regulated genes encoding proteins involved in photosynthesis''. His researches on the

gene expression Gene expression is the process by which information from a gene is used in the synthesis of a functional gene product that enables it to produce end products, protein or non-coding RNA, and ultimately affect a phenotype, as the final effect. The ...

and the activity of nitrate

reductase A reductase is an enzyme that catalyzes a reduction reaction. Examples * 5α-Reductase * 5β-Reductase * Dihydrofolate reductase * HMG-CoA reductase * Methemoglobin reductase * Ribonucleotide reductase * Thioredoxin reductase * ''E. coli'' ...

revealed the effect of light on the turnover of

phosphoinositide Phosphatidylinositol (or Inositol Phospholipid) consists of a family of lipids as illustrated on the right, where red is x, blue is y, and black is z, in the context of independent variation, a class of the phosphatidylglycerides. In such molecul ...

cycle. This helped explain light signal transduction in plants. Sopory is reported to be the first to purify a

Protein Kinase C In cell biology, Protein kinase C, commonly abbreviated to PKC (EC 2.7.11.13), is a family of protein kinase enzymes that are involved in controlling the function of other proteins through the phosphorylation of hydroxyl groups of serine and t ...

from plants and he has been successful in identifying

topoisomerase I DNA topoisomerases (or topoisomerases) are enzymes that catalyze changes in the topological state of DNA, interconverting relaxed and supercoiled forms, linked (catenated) and unlinked species, and knotted and unknotted DNA. Topological issues i ...

as a substrate of

in plants. Based on his work on dehydration stress and salinity-related

gene regulation Regulation of gene expression, or gene regulation, includes a wide range of mechanisms that are used by cells to increase or decrease the production of specific gene products (protein or RNA). Sophisticated programs of gene expression are wide ...

, he is known to have developed a new methodology for gene amplification and a

Polymerase chain reaction The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a method widely used to rapidly make millions to billions of copies (complete or partial) of a specific DNA sample, allowing scientists to take a very small sample of DNA and amplify it (or a part of it) t ...

-based protocol for manipulating differentially-expressed genes and their promoters. Working on rice (

Oryza sativa ''Oryza sativa'', commonly known as Asian rice or indica rice, is the plant species most commonly referred to in English as ''rice''. It is the type of farmed rice whose cultivars are most common globally, and was first domesticated in the Yan ...

) and

Pennisetum ''Pennisetum'' is a widespread genus of plants in the grass family, native to tropical and warm temperate regions of the world. They are known commonly as fountaingrasses (fountain grasses). His researches on

glyoxalase The glyoxalase system is a set of enzymes that carry out the detoxification of methylglyoxal and the other reactive aldehydes that are produced as a normal part of metabolism. This system has been studied in both bacteria and eukaryotes. This deto ...

system in plants explained how it affected the stress environment and he propounded a process how transgenic plants capable of growing in conditions of high salinity could be developed by manipulating

glyoxalase I The enzyme lactoylglutathione lyase (EC 4.4.1.5, also known as glyoxalase I) catalyzes the isomerization of hemithioacetal adducts, which are formed in a spontaneous reaction between a glutathionyl group and aldehydes such as methylglyoxal. :(' ...

and glyoxalase II, two enzymes related to the detoxification of

methylglyoxal Methylglyoxal (MGO) is the organic compound with the formula CH3C(O)CHO. It is a reduced derivative of pyruvic acid. It is a reactive compound that is implicated in the biology of diabetes. Methylglyoxal is produced industrially by degradation ...

, the organic compound known to increase the level of stress response of plants. Sopory's researches have been documented in over 250 articles published in peer reviewed journals;

ResearchGate ResearchGate is a European commercial social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. According to a 2014 study by ''Nature'' and a 2016 article in ''Times Higher Education'' ...

, an online repository of science articles have listed 242 of them. He has been the editor of 13 books on the subject and has contributed 53 chapters to books written/edited by others besides co-authoring the Hostel Manual for

. He is the president of the Indian Society of Plant Physiology and the vice president of the

National Academy of Sciences, India The National Academy of Sciences, India, established in 1930, is the oldest science academy in India. It is located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Prof. Meghnad Saha was the founder president. Fellows *Suddhasatwa Basu * Sudha Bhattacharya * Ch ...

, Allahabad. He has served as the vice president of such organizations as Indian Society for Plant Physiology and Biochemistry (2001–2003), Indian National Science Academy (2004–2006) and the Society for Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology, New Delhi (2009–2011) and is a former secretary of the Plant Tissue Culture Association of India (2001–2010). During his stint as the vice chancellor at

, the institution is reported to have acquired a new 1000-acre campus in South Delhi. The university started new doctoral research courses in Energy studies, Human rights,

Silk Route The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

studies, Climate change and Biotechnology and inaugurated a new website and a cyber library during this period. He has also mentored many students in their doctoral studies.

Awards and honours

Four of the major Indian science academies have elected Sopory as their fellow; The

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and Nobel Laureate C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 24 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it began with 65 founding fellows. The first general meet ...

(IAS) in 1992,

(NASI) in 1993, the

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi for Indian scientists in all branches of science and technology. In August 2019, Dr. Chandrima Shaha was appointed as the president of Indian National Science Academ ...

(INSA) the next year, and the

National Academy of Agricultural Sciences The National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) is a Government of India funded agency, established in 1990, is a research platform in the fields of crop husbandry, animal husbandry, fisheries and agro-forestry. It acts as a research base for ...

(NAAS) in 2002.

(TWAS) followed suit in 2005. He has delivered many notable award lectures such as Gadgil Memorial Award Lecture (2000) of the Plant Tissue Culture Association, P. Maheshwari Award Lecture (200) and Sisir Kumar Mitra Memorial Lecture Award (2011–2012) of the

, Platinum Jubilee Award Lecture (2003) of the

Indian Science Congress Association Indian Science Congress Association(ISCA) is a premier scientific organisation of India with headquarters at Kolkata, West Bengal. The association started in the year 1914 in Kolkata and it meets annually in the first week of January. It has a ...

, N. Narayana Memorial Award Lecture (2005) of the

Indian Institute of Sciences The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, in the Indian state of Karnataka. The institute wa ...

, Bangalore, G. V. Joshi Lecture Award (2010) of the Indian Society of Plant Physiology, and NCL Foundation Day lecture (2015) of the

National Chemical Laboratory The National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) is an Indian government laboratory based in Pune, in western India. Popularly known as NCL, a constituent member of the CSIR India, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) India, it was estab ...

,(CSIR) Pune. R. N. Singh Memorial Lecture (2000) of

Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU) IAST: kāśī hindū viśvavidyālaya IPA: /kaːʃiː hɪnd̪uː ʋɪʃwəʋid̪jaːləj/), is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916 ...

, Varanasi, Panchanan Maheshwari Memorial Lecture (2001) of

Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...

, N. B. Das Memorial Award Lecture (2002) of the Society of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Tenth Godnev Award lecture (2003) of the Belarus Academy of Sciences, Dr. Yellapragada Subba Row Award Lecture (2009) of

Indraprastha University Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, formerly Indraprastha University (IP or IPU), is a state university located in Dwarka, Delhi, India. The campus occupies 78 acres (31.56 hectares), among the largest in Delhi, and enrolls over 8,000 st ...

, Delhi, First H. C. Arya Lecture Award (2011) of the Plant Tissue Culture Association ( India), Dr. Gopinath Sahu Memorial Award Lecture (2014) of the

Central Rice Research Institute The National Rice Research Institute has been established since 1966 under Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) but it was setup on April 23, 1946 at Bidhyadharpur, Cuttack, Odisha with an experimental farm land of 60 hectares. Researc ...

, Cuttack, and Padmapani Award Lecture (2014) at Tibet House, Delhi are some of the other lectures delivered by him. S. P. Ray-Chaudhuri 75th Birthday Endowment Lecture Award of the Indian Society of Cell Biology, delivered in 2009 was the first instance a plant biologist was given the opportunity to deliver the address. In 1985, Sopory received the ''Career Award'' of the University Grants Commission, followed by ''Professor Hira Lal Chakravorty Award'' of the

, the next year. One year later, the

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada''), abbreviated as CSIR, was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the l ...

(CSIR) awarded him the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (SSB) is a science award in India given annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for notable and outstanding research, Applied science, applied or Fundamenta ...

, the highest Indian award for achievement in science and technology. The year 2001 brought him two awards, ''Salgram Sinha Award'' of the

and ''Birbal Sahni Medal'' of the Indian Botanical Society. The

(ISCA) honoured him with the ''Birbal Sahni Centenary Gold Medal Award'' for Life Time Achievement in 2005 and he was included in the Republic Day honours list of 2007 by the Government of India for the civilian honour of the

. Another ISCA award, ''S. S. Katiyar Award'', reached him in 2010, the same year as he received the ''Corresponding Membership Award'' for Non-USA scientists of the American Society of Plant Biology, thus becoming the first Indian to receive the award. Two more awards followed in 2012, ''Prof. R. N. Tandon Memorial Award'' of the

and ''B. M. Johri Memorial Award'' of the Society of Plant Research. The same year, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science (

honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

) by the

and, in 2014, he received another DSc degree, from

Rani Durgavati University Rani Durgavati Vishwavidyalaya (Rani Durgavati University), also known as University of Jabalpur, is a government university in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India. It was named after the queen Rani Durgavati. History The university was constituted ...

, Jabalpur. He received two more awards in 2014, ''Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Award'' of the

and ''T. N. Khoshoo Memorial Award'' of the Orchid Society of India.

References

External links

* *

Biography

Legacy

Awards and honours

See also

References

External links

Further reading