Dr. Suresh Kumar, an M.Sc. in Botany in 1977 from Univer sity of Delhi, Delhi was honoured with professor P. Maheshwari Memorial Award for achieving first position. He earned his PhD on vegetation ecology of Jaisalmer district in 1988 from Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur. Since 1978 he has served at CAZRI Jodhpur. He has been Sr. Scientist (1986-1998) and Principal Scientist (1998-2009) and is currently Head, Division of Integrated Land Use Management and Farming System, CAZRI, Jodhpur. He has headed research programmes funded by ACIAR, JICA, MoEF, DST, DBT, NMPB, RSMML, BLMCL, NRSA, SAC. He has surveyed, documented and mapped vegetation of almost all districts of western Rajasthan using satellite data and ground truthing. This extensive knowledge about vegetation and its management became evident in successful completion of rehabilitation of sand dunes (through aerial seeding), rocky habitats, limestone, gypsum and lignite mine spoils. Conservation of threatened species in all these rehabilitations was successfully demonstrated. He has 246 publications, of which 64 are in peer reviewed journals and 9 research monographs/books. He has been invited to deliver lectures in many national institutions/universities and international institutions in Japan, Australia, Sharjah and USA. He has also visited Cambridge, UK. He has been honoured with ICAR coveted Team Research Award in 1984 and Dr. K. A. Shankarnarayan Award in 1992. He has been member of important national committees of MoEF, New Delhi, such as Expert Group on Botanical Gardens, Expert group on Desert Biosphere Reserve and National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan. He has recently been nominated to International Cactus Committee to represent South Asia. The Desert Botanical Garden under his supervision since 1996 has been conferred the status of a “Lead Garden” by MoEF, New Delhi for excellent conservation efforts. He is currently handling a DBT programme on All India Network Project on “Preventing extinction and improving conservation status of threatened plants through application of biotechnological tools”.
