Rup Lal

Rup Lal is an Indian molecular biologist known for his work in molecular biology, genomics, metagenomics and taxonomy of microbial diversity inhabiting extreme niches. His research has led to the development of novel analogue of rifamycin, identification and functional characterization of microbial communities at Manikaran hotsprings atop the Himalyan Ranges in Himachal Pradesh and deciphering the role of microbes in degradation of Hexacholorocyclohexane (HCH) at a polluted dumpsite located at Ummari village, Lucknow, India. He has over 45 years of strong and longstanding experience in administration, teaching and research in various capacities at University of Delhi, India. He was ASM Ambassador for India (2012-2015), presently the ISME and FEMS Ambassador to India and Ambassador to International Microbial Literacy Initiative-South Asia Centre (IMILI-SAC). He was a visiting scientist at the University of Cambridge, University of Kaiserslautern, Oregon State University, EPFL, University of Lausanne, ETH-EAWAG, Zurich, CSIRO- Canberra (Australia) and Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig. He is recipient of several prestigious fellowships: Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, DBT- Overseas Fellowship, Indo-US-ASM Professorship in Microbiology, Australian Government Endeavour Executive Fellowship (2018-2019), ASM Moselio Schaechter Distinguished Service Award, Prof. S.R. Vyas Memorial Award, Prof. BN Johri Award, Lifetime Achievement Award from AMI(Association of Microbiologists of India), and Best ISME Ambassador-2022, Editor-in-Chief Indian Journal of Microbiology (2006-2013) and editorial board member- mSystems, ISME- Communication, Environmental-Microbiology/Reports, BMC-Biotechnology/Biochemistry, Microbial-Biotechnology, Indian Journal of Microbiology.

Prof Lal has over 45 years of experience in microbial diversity, genomics and metagenomics, supervised >75 Ph.D. thesis and ≥1000 UG/PG, over 250 publications, 11000 ISI citations, h-index 54 and two patents.

He has delivered/conducted >350 lectures and >100 workshops on microbial-diversity, genomics-metagenomics, computational-biology-biotechnology, scientific writing-communication, and microbial literacy and India-now and then Currently, Prof. Lal is dedicating most of his time in propagating microbial-literacy by delivering lectures/workshops schools/colleges targeting students/children and colleges under IMILI-SAC.

Presently, he is INSA Senior Scientist at the Acharya Narendra Dev, college, University of Delhi, New Delhi .

He is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India, Fellow of American Academy of Microbiology, Fellow of Indian National Science Academy, Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences.