Profile
Pooja Bhatnagar-Mathur, Ph.D.
Principal Scientist & Precision Genetics Lead
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
Dr Pooja Bhatnagar Mathur is a Cell and Molecular Biologist, with over 15+ years of experience within CGIAR, in the field of cell & tissue technologies, biotechnology and genome editing, and speed breeding in crop plants with a focus on development, implementation and routine application of methodologies to support the breeding processes. Pooja have been involved in wide range of initiatives for development of new technologies and techniques to deploy improved genetics of Grain Legumes and dryland cereal crops that offer food and nutritional security for a large part of the world’s population, especially in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Pooja has served as a thought leader for truly innovative ideas for long-term impacts on crop product profiles and has developed close partnerships across regions and organizations to ensure broad utility and impact of results. She has a strong track record of solving challenging and complex problems and has successfully developed breakthrough innovations resulting in a range of product outputs, enabling technologies, patents, and high-quality research publications. As leader for the cluster on “Enabling Technologies” in the CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes & Dryland Cereals (CRP-GLDC; http://gldc.cgiar.org), Pooja has provided direction to multi-organizational and multi- disciplinary global teams working on genome designs, precision breeding, genomics and data sciences to ensure collaborative development of tools and techniques for improving the precision and efficiency of GLDC breeding programs.
Focus Areas
- Understanding basic genetic and molecular mechanisms that control plant biology and physiology.
- Developing biotech- and novel breeding technologies for research, innovation and product deliverables in grain legumes and dry land cereal crops.
- Integrating discovery research with emerging ethical, legal and societal issues to responsibly mature and translate innovative plant biotechnology solutions for agriculture.
