Har Darshan Kumar

Biography

Har Darshan Kumar obtained his BSc (Hons) and MSc degrees from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), served as Lecturer in Bihar University (Ranchi College) (1956-58) and as Assistant Professor (Botany), Gorakhpur University (1958-64) from where he went to England as Commonwealth Scholar (1960-63) at the University of London. There he specialised in the field of genetics of blue green algae. On returning to India, he served the newly established University of Udaipur as Reader (1964-66), Professor (1966-71) and later as Senior Professor of Botany. Due to lack of facilities for hard-core work on genetics, he shifted to ecology, hydrobiology and systematics, with some work on simple mutagenesis and UV effects. In 1972, he joined the Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla as Senior Professor of Botany and Head of the Division of Biosciences, and subsequently joined BHU (1973) as Senior Professor in the Department of Botany. He was the Dean, Faculty of Science, BHU (1988-90; 1992-94). After retirement (1994), he served as CSIR Emeritus Scientist up to 1999.

Research Interest

Algology, Ecology & Microbial Biotechnology