Dr. Sujay Rakshit did his B.Sc. (Ag.) Hons. from Viswa-Bharati, Santiniketan in 1991, M.Sc. (Ag.) in Genetics & Plant Breeding (1991-93) from Banaras Hindu University and Ph.D. in Genetics (1993-98) from ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute. He started his scientific career at ICAR-Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur in 1996. In September 2000 he joined the erstwhile Directorate of Maize Research, New Delhi as well as faculty member in the Division of Genetics, ICAR-IARI. He did his post-doctoral research at Iwate Biotechnology Research Center, Japan under JSPS post-doctoral fellowship from 2003 – 2005. From November 2008 till March 2017, he worked as Principal Scientist (Plant Breeding) in the ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research, Hyderabad. He worked as the Director of ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research, Ludhiana from March 24, 2017 to Dec 08, 2022. Since Dec 09, 2022 he is working as Director, ICAR-Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Ranchi. He has made significant contributions in combining conventional and molecular breeding in maize, sorghum, minor millets, rice and pulses.

Dr. Sujay Rakshit has extensively involved in deployment of DNA markers in crop improvement and released of first low phytate MAS derived maize hybrid, PMH 1-LP. Ha has reported many DNA markers/QTLs for traits of importance in maize, cotton, pea and chickpea. He developed highly reproducible regeneration and transformation protocols from both mature and immature maize embryos. His work on DNA sequence variation in cultivated and wild relatives of rice demonstrated low nucleotide diversity among japonica rice as compared to indica or wild relatives, which suggested the immediate need to diversify the genetic base through wide crosses. Reported linkage disequilibrium (LD) decay in O. rufipogon within 5 kb, whereas it extends up to ~50 kb in O. sativa ssp. indica. He was involved in map-based cloning of PTOX1 gene in rice and its functional characterization.

He has released 15 improved cultivars, including one first low phytate maize hybrid, four QPM hybrids, three baby corn hybrids, two popcorn hybrids, two normal maize hybrids and a forage sorghum variety. Besides these he has 28 genetic stocks and

over 700 DNA sequences registered to his credit. He has published 91 research papers, 21 reviews and 19 technical articles in journals of national and international repute. He has edited six books and proceedings besides writing two policy papers, 26 book chapters, 31 bulletins and four training manuals. His Google scholar citation is 2109 with h-index 24 and i10-index 49.

In 2018 when Indian maize production was challenged by a new invasive pest, fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) he led the fight as the Director of national maize programme. The concerted efforts made not only could contain the damage but the country registered record production and the country crossed the 3.0 t/ha maize yield mark under his leadership. He has played a crucial role in establishment of the ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research at Ludhiana and currently the ICAR-IIAB is taking a new shape at Ranchi.

Dr. Rakshit is Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Indian Society of Genetics & Plant Breeding (ISGPB) besides recipient of the many prestigious recognitions like ISPGR Dr. BR Barwale Award for Excellence in Plant Genetic Resources, NEEDEF Agriculture Leadership Award 2021, Dr. AB Joshi Award 2020 (ISGPB), Kalaya Krishnamurty National Award 2021 (UAS Bangaluru), Chaudhary Devilal Outstanding AICRP Award 2019 (ICAR), Best Annual Report Award 2020 (ICAR), NE Borlaug Fellowship (USDA), JSPS Post-doctoral Fellowship for Foreign Researchers, BOYSCAST Fellowship, CSIR Scientist Travel Fellowship, Indian Science Congress Association Young Scientist Award, ICAR Jawaharlal Nehru Award, UNESCO Fellowship in Biotechnology, Best Ph.D. Student of IARI Medal, IARI Merit Medal, Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Award, Binani Gold Medal, BHU Gold Medal among others. He has visited Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Singapore, Japan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and the USA. He has been President, Maize Technologists Association of India, New Delhi (2018-20) and President, Agriculture & Forestry Section, 106th Indian Science Congress.