OUR OUTSTANDING PARASITOLOGISTS

It is a matter of great pride and pleasure that some of our Parasitologists have out shined in their professional life . This is not only in the specific field of Parasitology but they have proved their leadership being selected as Deputy Director General (Animal Sciences),ICAR ,Assistant Director General,ICAR, Vice Chancellors of Veterinary Universities , ICAR national fellow or Emeritus Scientists of ICAR. Here I am mentioning name of such distinguished scientists who have brought laurels to our profession. I will highly appreciate to know the names  of those who have left in this list. This may be mentioned either in the comments or to me via mail or whattsapp etc

DEPUTY DIRECTOR GENERAL (ANIMAL SCIENCES) ICAR

PARASITOLOGIST  K.M.L. PATHAK

This was the first time in the history of ICAR , that Dr KML Pathak , a renowned Parasitologist, was selected on this coveted post in the year 2010 . He completed his term in the year 2015 .In his tenure he took many important decisions- one was arranging brain storming workshops in veterinary universities to augment research and extension activities in vety universities beside  taking policy decisions at central government level.His brief resume is mentioned below.

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR GENERAL (EDUCATION), ICAR

DR SC DUTT 

In  independent India, just after partition, Dr SC Dutt started his scientific career from IVRI,Izatnagar and joined as Prof and Head of Parasitology at Jabalpur in 1969. However, he realized that the place is not conducive for scientific research (or came here only to teach me as I did my MVSc under him as inservice candidate between 1970 to 1974) hence left this place in 1974 to join ICAR as Assistant Director General, education; from this place he was taken to PAU, Ludhiana as Prof and Head in 1975 by Dr BS Gill, then Dean of Vety Faculty . All these  details and memorial lectures etc are published in a book form "Remembering DR SC Dutt : The Parasitologist" in 2015 by Har Anand Publishers Pvt Ltd, New Delhi

Dr P.B.MATHUR

Another Parasitologist who did his MVSc in 1961 under Dr SC Dutt at IVRI,Izatnagar and worked as ADG (education) from 1984 till his retirement , during which period he also worked as acting Deputy Director General (Education).
Dr Pramod Bihari Mathur MVSc,Ph.D was born on 15.06.1936 in Shikohabad, district Firozabad, UP. He graduated in 1958 from UP college of veterinary science, Mathura, MVSc in 1961 from IVRI and was offered a scholarship in 1964 by German Academic Exchange Services west Germany. On his return he worked in different capacities as Head of animal health division,Avikanagar, joint director , animal health officer,FAO and ultimately as ADG in ICAR. After retirement , he also joined private veterinary college at Jaipur.
 Beside receiving many awards and being follows of many scientific academies ,Dr Mathur was also President of Indian Association for Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology. Dr Mathur has expired in 2014 while travelling to USA to meet his son who is residing there.

VICE CHANCELLORS OF VETERINARY UNIVERSITIES

PARASITOLOGIST K.M.L. PATHAK

Prof. Pathak has joined as Vice Chancellor of UP PanditDeenDayalUpadhyayaPashu-chikishaVigyanViswavidyalayaEvam Go-AnusandhanSansthan, Mathura, UP on 3^rdMarch, 2016. 

Prof. K.M.L. Pathak, born in village Naraura, District Etah, UP, did his B.V.Sc. & A.H; M.V.Sc. Ph.D with academic excellence from G. B Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar. He obtained Post - Doc in Biotechnology from University of Salford, United Kingdom.He has served various prestigious organizations since 1981 in various capacities namely Senior Research Fellow, Research Associate and faculty member at G.B.P.U.A.&T Pantnagar; Professor, HOD and PG Faculty and Director Research at Rajasthan Agricultural University, Bikaner, Director, National Research Centre on Camel, Bikaner and Deputy Director General(Animal Sciences), ICAR (2010-15). For his excellent academic services, he has been conferred with numerous prestigious honors and awards including Doctor of Science (Honoriscausa) from NDUVS, Jabalpur and DUVASU, Mathura, Life Time Achievement Award, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Award, Dr. B.V.Rao Gold Medal, Dr.R.S. Swami Nath anagyer Memorial Award, Best University Teacher Award, Smt.Niranjani Parija Oration Award, Distinguished Veterinarian Award,Agriculture Leadership Award and PuratchiThalaiviSelvi JJayalalithaa Endowment Award. Various Societies also recognized his work and awarded Honor of Fellow viz., National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, National Academy of Veterinary Sciences, Indian Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Research and Indian Association for Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology. His leadership skills are well evident through his functioning as President, National Academy of Veterinary Sciences (2014-2016); President, Indian Association for Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology ,Member Adhoc Working Group on Non-Tsetse Transmitted Animal Trypanosomosis, OIE, Paris, member in Boards of Management/Governing Bodies of National Research Institutes, DADF, State Universities of Agriculture/Veterinary & Animal Sciences, State Go Seva Ayog and Expert Member in many National Committees dealing with Livestock and Poultry Science Policies, Biotechnology, Food and Bio-safety and regulatory issues. Moreover, his contribution in the field of science and research is well recognized by his more than 130 original research papers in National/International Journals of repute, 6 books,three book chapters, three Laboratory Manuals and 5 Monographs in the field of Infectious Animal Diseases and Veterinary Parasitology, Parasitic Zoonoses, deposition of 18 Gene Sequences with Gene Bank and  standardization of several technologies related to Diagnostics. He has visited more than 16 countries.

PARASITOLOGIST C RENUKA PRASAD 

Prof Renuka Prasad assumed the post of  third Vice- Chancellor of Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University, Bidar on 21 ^st Sept.2012.

Dr.C.Renuka Prasad completed B.V.Sc (1976) and M.V.Sc degree (1978) in Veterinary Parasitology  at the Veterinary College, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore and Ph.D at the Indian Institute of Science (1991). The masters and doctoral degree programes included extensive work on morphology and immunology of Theileria species of bovines. Started his career as Instructor in the Department of Parasitology, Veterinary College, Bangalore in 1978 and joined the Institute of Animal Health & Veterinary Biologicals as Scientist  and worked in different capacities such as Deputy Director (Research), Joint Director (Operations SRDDL, Research and Investigations) and rose to the position of Director  in June 2006.

He has 51 research papers to his credit, 2 SRDDL reports, 12 Research Projects from different funding agencies amounting to several crores of rupees, Institutional Collaborative Projects in USA and Germany, Academic Council Member and Member of Board of Studies of KVAFSU and Davangere University, member of Governing Council Zoo Authority of India,  Karnataka Livestock Development Agency, Karnataka Sheep & Wool Development Corporation.

Guided 3 M.V.Sc students in Veterinary Parasitology, 1 in Wildlife Medicine, Member of Advisory Committee of 20 M.V.Sc and 12 Ph.D students.

Member of ASRB, VIT Vellore and Bangalore University students.

He was responsible for developing State of Art Laboratory Facilities for Animal Disease Investigation and Diagnosis and also for developing  New Vaccines like Pentavalent Blue Tongue Vaccine for sheep, Freeze Dried  Cell Culture Vaccine for CSF(Classical Swine Fever).

He received Best Veterinarian Award by Karnataka Veterinary Association and Best Paper Award at National Symposium on Wild animal diseases.

Course Director for 14 Training programe for Veterinary Officers of South Indian States and also Co Course Director for many National Training in Veterinary Parasitology at the Centre of Advanced Faculty Training in the Veterinary College, Bangalore.( thanks to Dr PS Banerjee,IVRI for providing this input) . 

PARASITOLOGIST  P.D. JUYAL 

On 26^th February’ 2016, Prof (Dr) Prayag Dutt Juyal, a noted Veterinary Parasitologist, academician and administrator joined Nanaji Deshmukh Veterinary Science University (NDVSU), Jabalpur as Vice Chancellor.

Born in a tiny village of Uttarakhand  on 5^th January’ 1955,after his family shifted to western UP,  he completed his graduation from Meerut University,Meerut in 1973.  Realizing his bent of mind, pursued Veterinary Science as career and graduated from GBPUAT,Pantnagar (1977) and  completed his Masters in Veterinary Parasitology from GBPUAT (1979) and Doctorate from Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU), Hisar (1987). He garnered a rich experience of  35 years of academic, research management and administration remaining in association with different universities viz GBPUAT, Pantnagar; RAU (Pusa), Bihar; CCSHAU, Hisar; Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) and Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), Ludhiana. He became Professor and Head of Department of Veterinary Parasitology and  his sincerity, devotion and commitment to work raised him to the position of Registrar, GADVASU where he served the university for a period of 4.8 years (2010-2015) .He also held the additional responsibility of Comptroller, GADVASU during the period.  About a year ago, after superannuation, he worked as Director (R & D), in PTU affiliated College.

 During his academic career, he has been honored with awards and recognition viz college merit certificate; graduate teaching assistant ship  (1978); ICAR Senior Research Fellowship (1983); Travel Bursary Award (1993), Prof B V Rao Gold Medal (1998); Fellow of National Academy of Veterinary Sciences, NAVS (2005); Prof V S Alwar Memorial Award (2006); Shiksha Rattan Puruskar (2007); Fellow of Indian Association for Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology,IAAVP (2007); Scientist Award from Indian Society for Veterinary Immunology and Biotechnology, ISVIB (2010 & 2013) and Fellow of National Academy of Dairy Sciences,(India) NADSI (2014).

He has to his credit more than 200 publications and 3 books. He has also been associated with Societies and Councils in different scientific initiatives and held the position of Vice – President of IAAVP. He had been the member, Academic Council, CSK HPKVV, Palampur (HP), Chhattisgarh Kamadhenu University, Raipur,(Chhattisgarh), and  Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) Izatnagar and on the editorial board of Journal of Parasitic diseases ( Springer India ), Journal of laboratory physicians (AIIMS New Delhi) ,Journal veterinary and animal sciences, Lahore and Journal of animal research. During his scientific endeavor, he visited   United Kingdom, Japan and China.

ICAR NATIONAL FELLOW

PROF M.C. AGRAWAL 

On 12 January 1995 , Prof MC Agrawal was selected as ICAR national fellow which happened first time in the history of Parasitology in India as well as in the history of Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Jabalpur to work on different aspects of schistosomiasis. He developed many unique techniques that will help in future studies of schistosomiasis- special mention may be made about cultivating and infecting large number of snails in polythene bags or artificial cement tank , ear-pinna polythene method of infecting large animals (goats,pigs) with counted number of schistosome cercariea and tullu vertical water pump for perfusing large animals for recovering alive schistosomes.The domestic animals behaved differently with different schistosome species. For instance local cattle breed at Jabalpur do not show clinical form of nasal schistosomiasis while S.spindale is more pathogenic in them; goats when infected simultaneously with cercariea of S.spindale and S.incognitum were able to get rid off latter schistosome species with presence of only male S.spindale at the end of the experiment.Interestingly, Praziquental was  not very effective while triclabendazole at the dose rate of 20mg /kg body weight was effective in curing nasal schistosomiasis in Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh

Dr Agrawal fulfilled a great gap by publishing a book entitled "Schistosomes and schistosomiasis in South Asia"  from Springer in 2012 as there was no book on the subject although work on the topic was continued in this subcontinent since more than a century. 
The biodata and list of publications of Prof MC Agrawal can be viewed in this blog itself by going to the specific site. 

ICAR EMERITUS SCIENTIST

I do not have complete list of the Parasitologists who were awarded emeritus scientist by ICAR. I am mentioning only few names which I remember as emeritus scientist with the request to add the list. (My request to DDG HRD, ICAR has not resulted any response till date).

DR B. P PANDE , He was perhaps the first retired Parasitologist (Prof of Mathura Veterinary College) who was awarded emeritus scientist. perhaps in 1970 or so.  He worked at Lucknow

DR B V RAO  He was retired Prof of Tirupati. Perhaps he has worked on some aspects of amphistomes.

DR B B BHATIA He was retired Prof of Pantanagar .He has worked on some aspects of sarcocystosis. Perhaps it was in the year 1996-98

DR MC AGRAWAL He was retired Prof of Jabalpur. He was awarded  to work on field control of schistosomiasis. he worked from  July 2005 to June , 2007

DR MOHD HAFEEZ He was retired Prof of Tirupati. He was awarded to work on some aspects of cysticercosis , perhaps in the year 2011-2013.