Samir Debnath

Biography

Dr. Samir C. Debnath is a Research Scientist at the Atlantic Cool Climate Crop Research Centre of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in St. John’s, NL and an Adjunct Professor of Biology at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. He had been trained and worked in Bangladesh (Professor of Genetics and Plant Breeding), India (Ph.D. in maize breeding; 1978-82), Germany (Postdoc on potato biotechnology; 1984-86) and in UK (Postdoc on lettuce transformation; 1993-94) before he joined AAFC St. John’s Research Centre, in May, 1996. He has authored and co-authored more than 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals including review papers and book chapters, in plant propagation, biotechnology and breeding. He has been a keynote speaker and an invited speaker at a number of international and national conferences and meetings, was the President of the Newfoundland and Labrador Institute of Agrologists (P.Ag.) and is the President of the Canadian Society for Horticultural Science and the Country (Canada) Representative and Council Member of the International Society for Horticultural Science. Much of his current work focuses on wild germplasm improvement of berry crops and medicinal plants using in vitro (bioreactor micropropagation, in vitro selection) and molecular techniques (clonal fidelity, genetic diversity, marker-assisted selection) combined with conventional methods. Dr. Samir C. Debnath is a Research Scientist at the Atlantic Cool Climate Crop Research Centre of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in St. John’s, NL and an Adjunct Professor of Biology at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. He had been trained and worked in Bangladesh (Professor of Genetics and Plant Breeding), India (Ph.D. in maize breeding; 1978-82), Germany (Postdoc on potato biotechnology; 1984-86) and in UK (Postdoc on lettuce transformation; 1993-94) before he joined AAFC St. John’s Research Centre, in May, 1996. He has authored and co-authored more than 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals including review papers and book chapters, in plant propagation, biotechnology and breeding. He has been a keynote speaker and an invited speaker at a number of international and national conferences and meetings, was the President of the Newfoundland and Labrador Institute of Agrologists (P.Ag.) and is the President of the Canadian Society for Horticultural Science and the Country (Canada) Representative and Council Member of the International Society for Horticultural Science. Much of his current work focuses on wild germplasm improvement of berry crops and medicinal plants using in vitro (bioreactor micropropagation, in vitro selection) and molecular techniques (clonal fidelity, genetic diversity, marker-assisted selection) combined with conventional methods.

Research Interest

Plant Science