23/07/2026
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Meet the Scientist & Innovator👇
Dr. Amjad Masood Husaini is working as Professor-cum-Chief Scientist and Head, Division of Plant Biotechnology at SKUAST-K.
He was a visiting Scientist at the USDA in Maryland, USA and the University of Oxford, UK. He holds a PhD in Biotechnology, a PG Diploma in Bioinformatics, and certificates in various fields, including IPR, Remote Sensing, Bioinformatics, Genome Editing, Climate-Smart Agriculture, Participatory Plant Breeding and Advanced techno-management,.
Dr. Husaini is Fellow of the prestigious National Environmental Sciences Academy (New Delhi), and Society for Plant Research (SPR, Noida), and Member of the Peer Review College (PRC) of “Future Leaders Fellowships” by United Kingdom Research & Innovation (UKRI), UK; Senior Common Room (SCR) member of Somerville College, University of Oxford.
He has received several awards, including :
>Scientist of the Year Award-2017 (NESA, New Delhi).
>DBT-CREST Award-2012 (Ministry of Science & Technology, GoI)
>International Training Award-2013 (NAIP-ICAR, GoI); >Summer Research Fellowship-2013 (IASc-INSA-NASI);
>Young Scientist Award-2009 in Agriculture (J&K Council for S&T, Govt of J&K);
>Jawahar Lal Nehru Award for Outstanding Agricultural Research-2008 (ICAR, New Delhi); and
>Junior Scientist of the Year Award-2007 (NESA, New Delhi).
He has established the Genome Engineering & Societal Biotechnology Lab at SKUAST K.
Dr Husaini developed stress-tolerant strawberries during his PhD at Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi. At SKUAST-K, he helped to develop blast-resistant, high-yielding, cold-tolerant rice varieties and revive aromatic rice, Mushk budji, in Kashmir, India.
His work on saffron research includes diversifying saffron cultivation into new regions, developing organic production techniques, and addressing issues in saffronomics, in vitro multiplication, and adulteration.
He introduced ABPP of alpha-glycosidases in plants, a breakthrough technology developed at Oxford, and used it to study saffron biology.
He helped create a free ‘Saffron Rapid Test’ app, available on Google Play. He has mentored more than 20 PhD scholars and an equal number of MSc students in their research programs. He has edited seven books and published over 100 papers. He was ranked among the Top 2% Scientists in 2025 by Stanford/Elsevier.
