Dr. B. L. Patil is a Principal Scientist (Plant Biotechnology) at ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bengaluru, India. He did BSc & MSc in Agriculture from University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad (India) and PhD (2001-2005) from University of Delhi (India). During PhD he received a DAAD scholarship to work at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. He did his Post-Doctoral research (2006-2010) in Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, USA and contributed to the development of Virus Resistant Cassava for Africa, that has been approved for commercial cultivation in Kenya. Briefly he worked as Scientist-D, in the DBT’s National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute, Mohali (Punjab, India) and then he relocated to University of Basel, Switzerland to work with Prof. Thomas Hohn in the area of Plant Virology.
In 2012, he joined as a Senior Scientist in ICAR’s National Institute for Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi (India). In 2018, he relocated to ICAR’s Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru (India) and continues to work in the area of Plant Virology and biotechnological interventions for control of viruses.
During his stint in ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), he has been Principal Investigator for multiple projects funded by DBT (Dept. of Biotechnology, India), BIRAC, BCIL & ICAR. He has published extensively and is a recognized editor for International Journals, and reviewer for Indian/International Grant Applications. He has served as an external expert to assess the scientists from CSIR (Council for Scientific & Industrial Research, India) & ICAR (India).
He was honored with the Fellow Award by the Indian Virological Society in 2014 and received EU’s Erasmus Mundus scholarship in 2016. Recently, he was conferred with Prof. B.M. Johri memorial Award, by the Society for Plant Research (India). This year he is the only agricultural scientist from India to receive the prestigious Fulbright-Nehru visiting faculty fellowship to visit University of California, Davis (USA).