The Indian Botanical Society (IBS) is the national learned society for botanists of India. It was founded in 1920.
The Society's activities include lectures, symposia, field excursions, field projects and an annual society meeting for exchange of information between botanists working in different areas.
The Indian Botanical Society had its inception in a resolution passed by the Botany Section of the Indian Science Congress at the Nagpur meeting in January, 1920. A Committee of organisation was consequently formed to carry this resolution into effect. This Committee consisted of the late Dr. P. Bruhl of the University College of Science, Calcutta, the late Rai Bahadur K. Rangachariar of the Agricultural College, Coimbatore, the late Rai Bahadur Prof. Shiv Ram Kashyap of the Government College, Lahore, the late Prof. Birbal Sahni, then of the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Dr. W. Burns, then of the College of Agriculture, Poona and the late Dr. Winfild Dudgeon of the Ewing Christian College, Allahabad, with Dr. Dudgeon as Chairman.
In October 1920, the Committee sent out a letter to as many botanists as could be located in India, inviting them to become Charter Member of the new Society. It was agreed that 25 members would be considered sufficient for founding the Society and that office bearers should be elected when this number was reached. The response to this invitation was so immediate and hearty that it was possible to hold elections for office bearers of the Society by about the middle of November. Upon completion of the election on December 6, 1920 the Society was declared duly organised, and the Committee of organization ceased to exist. [1]
Indian botanical Society holds its Annual session in any University of the country where scientists/ Botanists/ present their views on resent advances in the subject. Thirty fifth session of IBS is scheduled at Vadodara during 8–10 December. The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda is hosting this conference. Young Botanists and Women scientist will be awarded in the conference.
The Journal of Indian Botany (later The Journal of the Indian Botanical Society), was launched under Professor Fyson's initiative. [2]
Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan is an Indian geneticist and administrator, known for his role in India's Green Revolution, a program under which high-yield varieties of wheat and rice were planted. Swaminathan has been called the "Father of Green Revolution in India" for his role in introducing and further developing high-yielding varieties of wheat in India. He is the founder of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation. His stated vision is to rid the world of hunger and poverty. Swaminathan is an advocate of moving India to sustainable development, especially using environmentally sustainable agriculture, sustainable food security and the preservation of biodiversity, which he calls an "evergreen revolution."
Sir George Watt was a Scottish physician and botanist who worked in India as "Reporter" on economic botany and during the course of his career in India he compiled a major multivolume work, TheDictionary of Economic Products of India, the last volume of which was published in 1893. An abridged edition of his work was also published as the single volume Commercial Products of India in 1908. He is honoured in the binomials of several plants named after him.
Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) is a premier scientific organisation of India with headquarters at Kolkata, West Bengal. The association started in the year 1914 in Kolkata and it meets annually in the first week of January. It has a membership of more than 30,000 scientists.
Robert Wight MD FRS FLS was a Scottish surgeon in the East India Company, whose professional career was spent entirely in southern India, where his greatest achievements were in botany – as an economic botanist and leading taxonomist in south India. He contributed to the introduction of American cotton. As a taxonomist he described 110 new genera and 1267 new species of flowering plants. He employed Indian botanical artists to illustrate many plants collected by himself and Indian collectors he trained. Some of these illustrations were published William Hooker in Britain, but from 1838 published a series of illustrated works in Madras including the uncoloured, six-volume Icones Plantarum Indiae Orientalis (1838–53) and two hand-coloured, two-volume works, the Illustrations of Indian Botany (1838–50) and Spicilegium Neilgherrense (1845–51). By the time he retired from India in 1853 he had published 2464 illustrations of Indian plants. The standard author abbreviation Wight is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
Rai Bahadur, abbreviated R.B., was a title of honour bestowed during British rule in India to individuals for their service to the Empire. The title was accompanied by a medal called a Title Badge. Translated, Rao means "prince", and Bahadur means "brave" or "most honourable". The equivalent title for Muslim and Parsi subjects was Khan Bahadur. For Sikhs it was Sardar Bahadur.
Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith is a public university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. Established in 1921 as Kashi Vidyapith and later renamed, it is administered under the state legislature of the government of Uttar Pradesh. The university has more than 400+ affiliated colleges spread over six districts. It is one of the largest state universities in Uttar Pradesh, with hundreds of thousands of students, both rural and urban. It offers a range of professional and academic courses in arts, science, commerce, law, computing and management.
William James Beal was an American botanist. He was a pioneer in the development of hybrid corn and the founder of the W. J. Beal Botanical Garden.
Krishna Kanta Handique was a Sanskrit scholar, an Indologist and philanthropist from Assam. He was a recipient of the civilian honour of the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan
The University of Lucknow or Lucknow University (LU) is a public state university based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Founded in 1867, the University of Lucknow is one of the oldest government owned institutions of higher education in India. LU's main campus is located at Badshah Bagh, University Road area of the city with a second campus at Jankipuram.
Hugh Francis Clarke Cleghorn of Stravithie, FRSE FLS LLD was a Madras-born Scottish physician who worked in India and pioneered as a botanist and in forest conservancy. Cleghorn, sometimes known as the father of scientific forestry in India, was instrumental in the creation of the forest department in the Presidency of Madras. The plant genus Cleghornia was named after him by the botanist Robert Wight. Cleghorn returned to Scotland in 1869 and developed forestry education in Scotland and established a lecturership at the University of Edinburgh.
The Botanical Society of Scotland (BSS) is the national learned society for botanists of Scotland. The Society's aims are to advance knowledge and appreciation of flowering and cryptogamic plants, algae and fungi. The Society's activities include lectures, symposia, field excursions, field projects and an annual Scottish Botanist's Conference, held jointly with the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland for exchange of information between botanists working in different areas. Its publications include a twice-yearly newsletter, BSS News, and a scientific journal, Plant Ecology & Diversity. The society is closely linked to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and the Scottish universities.
Rajeev Kumar Varshney is an agricultural scientist with expertise in genetics, genomics, molecular breeding and capacity building. He has more than 20 years of research experience in the area of international agriculture. He is currently working as global Research Program Director–Genetic Gains that includes several units viz. Genebank, Pre-Breeding, Cell, Molecular Biology & Genetic Engineering, Genomics & Trait Discovery, Forward Breeding, Seed Systems and Biotechnology- ESA, and Sequencing and Informatics Unit at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), headquartered at Patancheru, India. He is Founding Director for the Center of Excellence in Genomics & Systems Biology at ICRISAT and Adjunct Professor with several universities including Winthrop Research Professor with The University of Western Australia, West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement, University of Hyderabad, Chaudhary Charan Singh University and Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University.
Janaki Ammal Edavalath Kakkat was an Indian botanist who worked on plant breeding, cytogenetics and phytogeography. Her most notable work involved studies on sugarcane and the eggplant (brinjal) but she also worked on the cytogenetics of a range of plants and co-authored the Chromosome Atlas of Cultivated Plants (1945) with C.D. Darlington. She also took an interest in ethnobotany, and took an interest in plants of medicinal and economic value from the rain forests of Kerala, India. She was awarded a Padma Shri by the Indian government in 1977.
Kerala Science Congress is an annual gathering of Kerala-based scientists and scholars organised by Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE) for revitalizing Research and Development activities in Kerala and to identify new talents in scientific research in Kerala. KSCSTE is an autonomous body constituted by the Government of Kerala. The gathering features talks by invited scientists, presentations of research papers and awards of various prizes.
Gopinath Panigrahi is a botanist and plant taxonomist. He was born in the village Baikunthapur, Basudebpur block, Bhadrak district, Orissa, India and obtained a Ph.D. in 1954 from the University of Leeds where he studied Cytogenetics.
Vidyavati, former Vice-Chancellor, Kakatiya University, Warangal, Telangana, India was born on 15 September 1939, in Goud community. She is President of Phycological Society of India. She was honored by Telangana State Government as Eminent Women on 8 March 2017, on the occasion of "International Women's Day" celebrations.
Ranbir Chander Sobti is an Indian educationist, cell biologist. He is a former vice chancellor of the Panjab University, Chandigarh and Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow. He is known to have involved in advanced research in plant genetic studies and has written over 240 articles, and 22 books including Essentials of Biotechnology and Emerging Trends in Biomedical Science and Health. He is an elected Fellow of several major science academies such as Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, National Academy of Medical Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, India, and Punjab Academy of Sciences. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2009, for his contributions to Literature and Education.
Sushil Kumar is an Indian geneticist and academic, known for his Plant and microbial genetical genomics, especially the studies on Escherichia coli and Lambda phage as well as on the mutants of Rhizobium. He is a former director of the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, India, and Indian Academy of Sciences. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1981, for his contributions to biological sciences.
Rao BahadurSir Tiruvadi Sambasiva Iyer Venkataraman CIE, FNI, FASc was an Indian botanist, agronomist and plant geneticist who specialised in the study and hybridisation of sugarcane. He developed or supervised the development of numerous high-yield sugarcane cultivars, which established India as the world's second largest sugar producer and sustained the sugar industries of numerous other nations, including South Africa, Australia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, and the United States.
Shiv Ram Kashyap was a botanist in British India. He was a specialist on the bryophytes especially from the Himalayan region. He has been called the father of Indian bryology.
