Dr. Imran Siddiqi did his M.Sc. in Chemistry from IIT Bombay in 1981, followed by a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Oregon, USA.

After post-doctoral work — carried out at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore — he joined the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, in 1992, where he is currently a group leader. His laboratory works on the molecular genetics of germ cell formation in plants with particular reference to the mechanics of how genetic information is re-assorted at each generation. He and his collaborators have shown how it is possible to get seeds in which this genetic re-assortment does not take place. These seeds are clones of the mother plant – genetic replicas that are identical in all respects to the parent. This work has been a breakthrough contribution towards developing new methods for plant breeding that could revolutionize agriculture in ways that would benefit farmers in developing countries.

Dr. Siddiqi is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy. He received the “2011 Infosys Prize for Life Sciences” in recognition of his contribution to plant sciences. He received the Cold Spring Harbor Visiting Fellowship in 1998 and the Visiting Professorship at the Institute of Molecular Agrobiology, Singapore, in 2001.

Dr. Siddiqi has membership in the Indian Society for Developmental Biology and the Society of Biological Chemists, India. He is on the editorial boards of BMC Plant Biology, Frontiers in Plant Science, Journal of Biosciences, Journal of Genetics, and Journal of Integrative Plant Biology. He has reviewed for lioS Biology, PloS Genetics, Journal of Cell Science, Plant Physiology, Plant Molecular Biology, Trends in Plant Sciences, Journal of Biosciences, Journal of Genetics. Current Science, Biotechnology Journal.