Bassersdorf, Switzerland
August 19, 2020
 

Jayanthi Nadarajan

Jayanthi Nadarajan has over 15 years of experience in seed conservation science and over the years has developed a passion for conservation science and innovation of new technologies. She completed her PhD on ‘Development of efficient experimental strategies for the cryopreservation of problematic tropical rainforest tree germplasm’ with the University of Abertay Dundee, Scotland in 2005.
 
She developed a keen research interest in optimising storage conditions for desiccation sensitive (recalcitrant) and oily seeds that are problematic under conventional seed bank condition with a particular attention in investigating seed water and lipid biophysics using thermal analysis. Her research work is multidisciplinary in approach and has global connections, with publications of over 50 scientific articles with co-authors from >15 countries.
 
Currently, Jayanthi is the programme leader for the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment SSIF (Strategic Science & Investment Fund) for Nationally Significant Databases and Collections at Plant and Food Research.
 
She believes in a sharing and caring scientific community and science without borders. She served as the treasurer for the Society for Low-Temperature Biology (SLTB) from 2011-2014 and currently serving as a council member of New Zealand Society of Plant Biologist. She values knowledge and technology transfer to the next generation of scientists and she was accredited as an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, United Kingdom in 2015. Her appointment as an adjunct associate professor with the Massey University in New Zealand facilitates her with supervision two PhD and two MSc students in seed conservation sciences.

For Jayanthi, it is an honour to be elected as the Chair of the Seed Storage Committee of ISTA and she is looking forward to a successful collaboration and contribution of the STO COM to overall ISTA’s missions.  

Website: http://www.seedtest.org

Published: August 19, 2020