UHF scientist conferred with Horticulture Society of India fellowship

For his immense contributions to the field of Post-Harvest Technology (PHT), Dr PC Sharma, a senior scientist of the Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry(UHF), Nauni has been conferred fellowship of the Horticultural Society of India. Dr Sharma is presently working as Dean, College of Horticulture and Forestry, Neri, Hamirpur. He was conferred with the fellowship during the Indian Horticulture Congress 2019 held at Raipur earlier this month. Dr Sharma has developed processing protocols for extraction of edible oil from apricot/ wild apricot kernels and established extraction units for transfer of this technology to farmers. Several processes for drying of grapes and apricot, packaging and grading of apple, pectin from apple pomace, dietary fibre enriched beverages from lemon, lime and grapes have also been developed by him. After completing his doctorate in Food-Technology (Fruit and Vegetable Technology) from PAU Ludhiana, Dr Sharma carried on his work on post-harvest technology of horticultural crops at Queens’ University, Northern Ireland, as a recipient of Commonwealth Fellowship. From 1981-87, he served the Himachal Pradesh Department of Horticulture at various positions after which he joined UHF as an Assistant Scientist at the Regional Horticultural Research Station, Sharbo. He also served as the Professor and Head of the Department of Fruit Science and Technology at the University. In addition, Dr Sharma served ICAR- Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology, Abohar as Head, Horticultural Crop Processing Division. Here he developed technologies and equipment like Pneumatic Assisted coring device for ber and date palm, debittering of kinnow juice, canning of ber fruits, low calories canned pears and anola-jamun beverages for diabetics. He has handled seven externally funded projects and remained Principal Investigator of Solan centre AICRP on PHT. As sectoral Principal Investigator (horticultural crops) of AICRP on PHT, Dr Sharma coordinated research programmes of 25 centres in the country from 2009-2012. Dr Sharma is the recipient of several awards including Kejriwal Award 2002, NN Mohan Memorial Award 2005, Dr JS Pruthi Award 2005, 2011 and, 2015, ISAE Team Award 2013. Besides guiding several MSc and PhD students, Dr Sharma has over 175 research papers, books and book chapters and popular articles to his credit. University Vice-Chancellor Dr HC Sharma and other scientists and staff congratulated Dr PC Sharma on his achievement.