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Dr. Channapatna S. Prakash
Professor, Plant Molecular Genetics
Tuskegee University, Alabama, USA
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Dr. C. S. Prakash is a professor of plant genetics, biotechnology
and genomics at Tuskegee University (USA) where he has been on faculty
since 1989. He oversees the genetic improvement research on food
crops of importance to developing countries and has trained dozens
of scientists and students. He has also been actively involved in
enhancing the societal awareness of food biotechnology issues around
the world. He has funded projects on peanut genomic research from
USAID/Zambia; serves in the USAID
Agricultural Innovation Partnership project to enhance agricultural
innovation in India in partnership with Cornell University; and,
partners
with UCLA in an innovative distance learning program on genetics
through interactive live video including lecturing in an online
course. Dr. Prakash also serves as Editor-in-chief of the journal
GM Crops.
Dr. Prakash has earlier served on the USDA's Agricultural Biotechnology
Advisory Committee under Mr. Dan Glickman (Agricultural secretary
in Clinton Cabinet) and the Advisory Committee for the Department
of Biotechnology for the government of India. Dr. Prakash has been
instrumental in catalyzing the scientific community in many countries
to be more proactive in the biotechnology debate. He is a popular
speaker who has delivered hundreds of lectures at many major universities
across USA (Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Purdue, Cornell) and
also lectured at dozens of countries including many high-profile
institutions such as Aspen Ideas Festival, United Nations, Vatican,
National Governors’ Association, FAO, U. S. Congress, USDA, US Trade
Office, World Ag Forum, World Food Prize Symposium, NAACP, CORE
and Pugwash.
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He delivered the E. T. York Distinguished Lecture at Auburn University (2000)
and the Julian Simon Lecture at Liberty Institute (’03). He has delivered
invited lectures at many scientific society meetings including AAAS, American
Medical Association, BIO, American Chemical Society and American Society
of Plant Biology. His
commentaries,
interviews and opinions have appeared in hundreds of newspapers and
magazines across the globe. He has been featured in dozens of radio and
TV programs (BBC TV, CBC, China Radio Guardian, Time, Wall Street Journal,
Vatican Radio, Financial Times, IHT, Science, Nature etc.) including ABC’s
20/20 with John Stossel,
NPR’s Science Friday by Ira Flatow, NPR’s Talk of the Nation by Juan
Williams, UK’s Channel 4 documentary “Rise
and Fall of GM” ,
You Tube, and in the documentary “History's
Harvest: Where Food Comes From” from the American Society of Plant Biologists.
In 2002, Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa (now the Ag secretary under President
Obama) and Gov. Mike Johanns of Nebraska invited Dr. Prakash to deliver
a
luncheon speech at the National Governors Association conference.
In 2003, Ag Secretary Ann M. Veneman (now head of UNICEF) invited Dr.
Prakash to speak at the international
Ministerial Conference on Agricultural Science and Technology in Sacramento,
California where he addressed ministers of agriculture from 120 countries.
Subsequently, Veneman and U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick
(now head of World Bank)
invited Dr. Prakash to address a press conference in Washington to
mark a landmark suit filed by US in the WTO against EU for it’s moratorium
on GM crops. Dr. Prakash has served as an expert speaker for the US State
Department and USDA to speak on agbiotech issues at more than forty countries.
India’s Jairam Ramesh (now minister of rural affairs; earlier minister
of environment) has sought Dr. Prakash’s assistance in the development
of biotechnology in Karnataka. Dr. Prakash will soon lead a panel discussion
in an international meeting in Marrakech (Morocco; May 2012) on
biotechnology in US and the Moslem world countries.
Dr. Norman Borlaug has frequently commended Dr. Prakash’s efforts, and
also visited Tuskegee University;
Dr. Prakash has championed Dr. Borlaug’s life and career, and helped
celebrate Dr. Borlaug’s 90th birthday where many notable individuals
such as Jimmy Carter, Tony Blair, Kofi Annan, and George McGovern responded
to Dr. Prakash’s request by sending personal greetings and messages marking
Dr. Borlaug’s birthday. When
Dr. Borlaug was awarded the congressional gold medal by President
Bush, speaker Nancy Pelosi invited Dr. Prakash as a guest for the event
at the US Capitol. Senator Christopher ‘Kit’ Bond also has acknowledged
Dr. Prakash’s initiatives in biotechnology during a senate floor discussion
and placed his op-ed column from the Atlanta Journal Constitution on gobal
hunger on the US congressional
record. Prakash was also among the distinguished scholars and scientists
by
Pontifical Academy of Science in the Vatican to deliberate on the
issue of transgenic crops. He has also conducted training programs in
biotech communication in dozens of countries across Africa, Asia and Latin
America.
Dr. Prakash's website
www.agbioworld.org has become an important portal disseminating information
and promoting discussion in agbiotech issues among stakeholders such as
scientists, policy makers, activists and journalists. His declaration
in support of agricultural biotechnology was signed on by nearly 4000
scientists including 25 Nobel laureates. Through social networking
sites Twitter
and Facebook,
and newsletter
AgBioView (which has been read by 5000 subscribers since 1999
and with over 2500 issues) along with running many online discussion groups
on
agbiotech in Africa and India, he is widely recognized as a pundit
on GMO topic because of his broad focus on technical, societal and ethical
issues.
Dr. Prakash’s contribution to agricultural biotechnology outreach was
recognized by the magazine Progressive Farmer who awarded him the
‘Man of the Year’ award ‘in service to Alabama Agriculture’. He was named
one of a dozen ‘pioneers, visionaries and innovators behind the progress
and promise of plant biotechnology’ by the Council for Biotechnology Information.
He was chosen by his peers as among the "100
Top Living Contributors to Biotechnology" (October 2005) while
the prestigious 'Nature' magazine readers' short listed him for "Who's
who in biotech - some of biotech's most remarkable and influential
personalities from the past 10 years" (March 2006). He has won
the faculty performance award at Tuskegee University (1994) and a plaque
from U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. He also has received a Commemorative
Award from the President of Zambia, His Excellency Honorable Rupiah Banda
(2010).
Dr. Prakash has a bachelor's degree in agriculture and masters in genetics
from India, and obtained his Ph.D. in forestry/genetics from the Australian
National University, Canberra. His research interests include studies
on transgenic plants, gene expression, tissue culture and plant genomics.
Dr. Prakash's group at TU led the development and biosafety testing oof
transgenic sweetpotato plants, establishment of biosafety guidelines
in Ghana, was first to identify polymorphic DNA markers in peanut and
pioneered the development of genetic map of cultivated peanut. His
papers, especially on peanut genetic markers, are
among the highest cited from Tuskegee University. Dr. Prakash
also serves on the editorial board of AgBioForum, The Journal of New
Seeds, Indian Journal of Biotechnology, Electronic Journal of Sustainable
Development, Food Biotechnology, and the Journal of Plant Biochemistry
and Biotechnology. He also also serves on the scientific advisory
board of American Council on Science and Health (NY), BioScience Policy
Institute (New Zealand), Lifeboat Foundation, Policy Network (UK) and
Life Science Foundation India. Dr. Prakash has earlier served
as a panel manager for the USDA’s biotechnology risk assessment grant
program, chaired the minority affairs committee of the American Society
for Plant Biology, served on the review panel to evaluate USAID's "Initiative
to End Hunger in Africa" Program, panelist on “Leveraging University
Research for Industrial Competitiveness and Growth” report from Penn State
and National Science Foundation and continues to serve on grant review
panels of several federal agencies.
C. S. Prakash, Ph.D.
Professor, Plant Genetics, Genomics and Biotechnology
College of Agricultural, Environmental and Nutrition Sciences
Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL 36088 USA
prakash@mytu.tuskegee.edu
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