PAU APPOINTS NEW OFFICIALS

Ludhiana, May 30, 2017: The Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has appointed new officials on various key posts. The University has appointed Dr R.S.Sidhu as Registrar; Dr Navtej Bains as Director of Research; Dr S.S.Kukal as Dean, College of Agriculture; and Dr (Mrs) Jatinder Gulati as Dean, College of Home Science. The new appointments were approved during 281st meeting of the Board of Management, PAU, held under the Chairmanship of Dr Baldev Singh Dhillon, Vice-Chancellor, PAU at University Camp Office, SAS Nagar (Mohali) today.

An agricultural economist, Dr Sidhu has served as Head, Department of Economics and Sociology (2008); Dean, College of Basic Sciences and Humanities (2009-14); Director of Extension Education (2014-17); and officiating Comptroller and Registrar of PAU. He has conducted research on natural resource degradation and their management, agricultural price and credit policies, indebtedness and suicides, agricultural diversification, input use efficiency, labour and wages.Besides, he has taught courses in advanced agriculture economics, financial management in agriculture, natural resources in economics, money and banking, policy and planning to the Ph.D, M.Sc and MBA students of PAU. Under his leadership as Director of Extension Education, a new Krishi Vigyan Kendra and a Skill Development Centre were established at Pathankot (2017) and PAU (2016), respectively. In addition, the whitefly menace was successfully curbed in Punjab along with the joint efforts of State Department of Agriculture, resulting in record productivity of 756 kg/ha of lint (2016-17). He has handled 13 research projects and has 123 research publications to his credit.Dr Sidhu is also a recipient of several awards and honours including Fellow of Indian Society of Agricultural Economics (2014). Apart from this, he is a member of several expert committees.

Dr Bains has served in the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics for 26 years. His research work has mainly focused on wheat breeding. He has led the Wheat Improvement Group of the University for five years. His major research achievement includes integration of genetic and biotechnological tools for breeding high yielding varieties with disease resistance and quality. He has published 91 research papers besides developing nine wheat varieties. As a part of his training, Dr Bains worked as Post Doctoral Fellow at International Rice Research Institute, Philippines for two years. He has handled 26 competitive research projects sponsored by national and international agencies.

Dr Kukal is a senior soil scientist, who has devised innovative techniques for management of irrigation water in rice and developed efficient management strategy for gully erosion. He has been actively involved in research on resource conservation techniques for rice and wheat. At PAU, he has served as Professor of Soil Conservation in 2006 and Additional Director of Research (Natural Resource and Plant Health Management) from 2016-17. A gold medalist in B Sc (Hons.) Agriculture from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Dr Kukal has more than 300 research publications to his credit. He has guided 12 M.Sc and three Ph.D students in the field of soil erosion and water management. He is a recipient of several awards and honours including Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (2015) and Indian Society of Soil Science (2016), Dr GS Khush Distinguished Professor Award (2013), Honorary Member of Watershed Management Society of Iran (2015), and Meritorious Teacher Award of PAU (2012).

Dr Gulati is working in the College of Home Science for the last 35 years. She is among the pioneers to initiate e-learning in the College and has also trained the PAU faculty on IT based learning management systems. She was awarded a fellowship by USA and was invited to undergo training in teaching learning excellence at Ohio State University, Columbus, USA. The United States Department of Agriculture had honoured her with the Agriculture Knowledge Initiative (AKI ) Scholar Certificate of Recognition. Dr Gulati is also a recipient ofHuman Development Scientist Award (2009) andShiksha Rattan Puraskar(2010).She has served as anational resource person, recognized by Ministry of Human Resource Development and United Nations Population Fund in its Adolescent Education Programme. In addition, she has served as a resource person of University Grants Commission in itsprogramme on “Capacity Building of Women Managers in Higher Education.”