Dr Parbodh Chander Sharma, presently working as Director, Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal (India), was earlier program leader for improvement of rice, wheat, Indian mustard and chickpea for salt tolerance and high yield as Head, Division of Crop Improvement. He has made significant contributions in understanding the physiological mechanisms under salinity stress in different crops and was involved in developing salt tolerant high yielding genotypes of Indian mustard (CS 56, CS 58 and CS 60), rice (CSR 46, CSR 56 and CSR 60) and wheat (KRL 283), besides improving three popular mega varieties of rice (Pusa 44, PR 114 and Sarjoo 52) for salinity tolerance by introgression of SALTOL QTL following molecular marker assisted backcross breeding. He has made significant contribution in developing crop and resource management practices for sustainable future cereal-based systems.  He has been awarded fellowships by three professional societies. He is the President of the Indian Society of Soil Salinity and Water Quality since 2016. He has more than 100 research publications in peer reviewed research journals.