Director, Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla-171 001 (HP)
Email address: skpandey.cpri@gmail.com

Dr. Pandey, a potato breeder by profession, has contributed tremendously to potato improvement through development of 13 high yielding potato varieties. His contribution has been the development of four first-ever indigenous potato processing varieties (Kufri Chipsona-1, 2 and 3 and Kufri Himsona) that revolutionized the Indian potato processing sector. He has made valuable contribution in identification of suitable varieties, their cultural and post-harvest requirements to grow processing varieties in central and eastern India. His research on potato cell/tissue culture vis-à-vis micropropagation has significantly augmented technologies for the production and maintenance of disease free potato microplants and microtubers. Dr. Pandey has also developed VarTrack, a computer software, for identifying potato varieties through morphological and molecular makers. Because of his monumental contribution, he has been bestowed with several awards, which include ICAR Award for Outstanding Multi-disciplinary Team Research (1997-99), IPA-Kaushalya Sikka Award (2005), IFFDC Award (2005), Dr. J. C. Anand Gold Medal (2005), L. C. Sikka Endowment Award (2006), Rafi Ahmad Kidwai Award (2007) and Dr. S. Ramanujam Award (2007). He is also a Fellow of Horticultural Society of India and National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Dr. Pandey has over 250 research and popular articles, books, book chapters and review papers to his credit.