Ludhiana, July 17 Parveen Chhuneja, director at the School of Agricultural Biotechnology, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), has been conferred with the national award, Panjabrao Dekhmukh Outstanding Woman Scientist Award, by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for her scientific contributions to the field of agricultural biotechnology. She received the award at the ICAR foundation day and award ceremony, held in New Delhi, on July 16. Chhuneja’s work on the utilisation of wild relatives of wheat for the past 20 years in wheat improvement has been recognised with this award. Chhuneja has transferred a large number of new genes from wild wheats, which are being used for developing new wheat varieties. Five of these genes have been designated at an international level. She has made significant contributions to the development of five wheat varieties developed through marker assisted selection, including Unnat PBW 343. Chuneja has published more than 85 research papers in international and national journals. She has handled six international and 10 national research projects as the principal investigator. She has also been awarded the Best Researcher Award and Dr Gurdev Singh Khush Distinguished Professor Award by PAU, and the International Gene Stewardship Team Award by the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) for her outstanding contributions to wheat research and development.

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