Discovering Curiosity: Tilling the Fields of Plant Molecular Biology with Professor Savithramma Dinesh-Kumar
Professor Savithramma Dinesh-Kumar, Department of Plant Biology, grew up in Bhadravathi, India. As a kid, he routinely spent time with his father, a high school teacher, on their farm in a nearby village. They grew rice and sugarcane, harvesting the latter crop by night when its sugar content was optimal.
“Since I was on the farm, I was always interested in plants, especially why farmers grow so many varieties of rice,” said Dinesh-Kumar.
But when it came time for university, Dinesh-Kumar initially decided to study engineering. While good at mathematics, he found the work too abstract. It wasn’t tangible, like the soil and crops in the farm fields of his youth. So Dinesh-Kumar took a different route and enrolled at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Bangalore, India. He started studying genetics, which eventually opened doors to research on plant breeding and plant-pathogen interactions. A storied career followed.