• Ph.D. Plant Biotechnology, Seoul National University, South Korea, 2014
• M.Sc. Plant Biotechnology, Tamilnadu Agricultural University, India, 2008
• B.Sc. Agriculture, Annamalai University, India, 2005
• 2022/05 ~ - Team Lead-Plant Improvement Team, GIFS, University of Saskatchewan.
• 2021/09 - 2022/04 - Research Associate, GIFS, University of Saskatchewan.
• 2020/09 – 2021/09 now - Research officer, Global Institute for Food Security, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.
• 2016/09 – 2020/08 - Post-Doctoral researcher, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Saskatoon, Canada.
• 2014/03-2016/08 - Post-Doctoral fellow, Seoul National University, South Korea.
• 2005/07-2006/03 - Agricultural officer cum Team Leader, MGP Herbals Private Ltd, Manjini, India.
• Certificate of Excellence: Bronze award through the GIFS Gracias (in-house program).
• Post-Doctoral Fellowship: Mitacs elevate postdoctoral fellowship (2018/08-2020/07) to work on a Cargill genomic selection project.
• PhD Fellowship: Received Korean Government Scholarship (2008-2013) from NIIED, South Korea, to learn Korean language (09/2008-08/2009) (KLPT - Korean Language Proficiency Test score 295) and pursue doctoral course (09/2009-02/2014)
• Certificate of Merit: G.Vageesam Pillai Agricultural prize for securing the highest mark in the subject Plant Breeding (2003) during my under graduation studies
• Certificate of Merit: First place Rural Agricultural work experience
• Travel Award: Nanopore poster presentation award for the Plant and Animal Genome Conference 2020, SanDiego, USA.
• Certificate of Excellence: Bronze award through the GIFS Gracias (in-house program).
• 2022-2026 Andrew Sharpe (PI), Bill Biligetu (coPI), Sampath Perumal (CoPI), Genomic understanding of the alfalfa genome to enhance the availability of improved drought and salt stress tolerant germplasm for breeding. Agricultural Development Fund – Government of Saskatchewan. 4 year duration. Awarded; 475,000 (full).
• 2022-2026 Andrew Sharpe (PI), Bill Biligetu (coPI), Sampath Perumal, Genomic characterization of the Prairie forage crop hybrid wheatgrass (Elymus hoffmanni) and its parental ancestors. Agricultural Development Fund – Government of Saskatchewan. 4-year duration. Awarded; 558,000 (full).
• 2020-2024 Andrew Sharpe (PI), Isobel Parkin(coPI), Curtis Pozniak(coPI), Sampath Perumal. Identification and exploitation of genome structural variants for trait improvement in Prairie crops. 4-year Duration. Agricultural Development Fund – Government of Saskatchewan and Genome Canada. Awarded $500,000.00 (full).
• 2018/08-2020/07 - Mitacs elevate postdoctoral fellowship (2018/08-2020/07). Granted; 120,000.
Professonal: Genomics and Binformatics
• Strong domain knowledge and understanding of genomics, comparative genomics, pan-genomics, and other cutting edge genomic technics.
• Working and managing on government and industry funded projects - developing multiple genome assemblies, high-throughput-phenotyping, quantitative genetics and CRISPR editing
• Designing new projects (writing proposals) project planning and management
• Day-to-day planning and supervising – Post-Docs, students and Technicians
• Experienced in molecualar biology techniques such as HMW DNA extraction, NGS library preparation, Nanopore and PacBio sequenicng.
• Plant breeding – crossing, mapping population development, conduct traits and phenotyping.
• Morethan 7 years of working experience of various genomics data and computational methods using NGS, Nanopore and PacBio data for genome assembly (Long-read genome assembly, annotation), variant calling (SNP and SV), expression, and methylome analysis, etc.
• Good experience in computational skills with command-line (linux) interfaces and scripting using bash, python and R. Big data bioinformatics using HPC and cloud server (aws and google).
• Experience in quanititative genetics and molecular breeding techniques MAS, QTL analysis, GWAS, Genomic selection.
• Experience in successfully delivering valuable analysis through domain knowledge and effective collaborations.
• Conduct routine literature research on cutting edge data science and genomics topics and bring ideas and implement improvements to our existing projects.
• Served as reviewer for various peer-reviewed journals including PLoSone, Scientific reports and PeerJ
Personal
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and ability to present scientific data to a multidisciplinary audience in a clear and cohesive manner.
• Good time management, organizational, planning and troubleshooting abilities
• Strong project planning, project management skills and ability to balance several concurrent projects.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively with other field team members.
Principles of teaching and philosophy - University of Saskatchewan, Canada Sep 2017 – Apr 2018
Professional Skill Development - University of Saskatchewan, Canada Sep 2017 – Apr 2018
Workshop: Teaching assistant success series - University of Saskatchewan, Canada Mar 12, 2018
Workshop: Foundations of Project Management I - University of Saskatchewan, Canada Oct 24-25, 2017
Workshop: Scientific and Technical Writing Skills - University of Saskatchewan, Canada Nov 3 & 6, 2017
Workshop: Foundations of Project Management II - University of Saskatchewan, Canada Mar 8-9, 2018
o 2019/10- 2020/06 : PSAC Union Vice-President, University of Saskatchewan
o 2010-2015 Indian community activity – Organizing events, Conducting functions and games shows
o 2008/09-2009/08 : Korean Language Scholar, Wonkwang University, South Korea
o 2017/10-2018/03 : PSAC Union Secretary, University of Saskatchewan
o Volunteering on various events: Blood donation camps, Marathon, Translation