Indrani Karunasagar, 2023-05-19

Indrani Karunasagar was born in Jabalpur on 25 June 1952. She was educated at St. Joseph's Convent, Jabalpur (1959-64) and IAF Avadi Kendriya Vidyalaya (1964-68). She did her B.Sc. Ed. at the Regional College of Education, Mysore (1968-72), M.Sc. at Kasturba Medical College, Manipal (1972-75) and Ph.D. at Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore University (1985). She did postdoctoral stints at the University of Stirling, University of Copenhagen, University of Maryland and Centre for Marine Biotechnology, Baltimore, USA. She was also a visiting professor at the University of Wuerzburg, Germany from 2002 to 2006. She joined Nitte University as Director (R&D) in 2014 and set up the Nitte University Center for Science Education and Research (NUCSER). Her primary areas of interest are aquaculture biotechnology, fish and shellfish health management, functional genomics of shrimp, molecular methods for rapid detection of viruses associated with fish and shrimps, antiviral strategies, bacterial pathogens of fish and shellfish, vaccines for aquatic animals, phage therapy, pathogenicity and pathogenesis of microorganisms of public health significance, marine toxins, toxic dinoflagellates, bacterial algal interactions and risk assessment of pathogens associated with seafood. Some of the prominent awards she has received are the Sir. M. Visvesvaraya Award for excellence in research and lifetime contribution to Science and Technology by the Govt. of Karnataka in 2014; the National Technology Development Award by DST in 201; and the Lifetime achievement - National Women Bioscientist Award by DBT in 2003.