Biography
Ambassador to Jawaharlal Nehru University, Himadri B. Pakrasi is the Myron and Sonya Glassberg/Albert and Blanche Greensfelder Distinguished University Professor and director of the International Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability (InCEES). He was born in Calcutta, India, and received undergraduate training in physics at the Presidency College and University of Calcutta. He came to the U.S. to study biology and earned a doctorate at the University of Missouri – Columbia in 1984. He has been on the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis since 1987. Pakrasi is a biochemist recognized for his work on photosynthesis and bioenergy production. He has a keen interest in bridging the differences between the biological and physical sciences, and has led large-scale, multi-institutional systems biology projects. He currently directs Washington University’s effort to develop groundbreaking initiatives in the area of bioenergy. Professor Pakrasi has been an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at Munich University, Germany; a Distinguished Fellow at the Biosciences Institute, Nagoya University, Japan; and a Lady David Visiting Professor at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the American Society for Microbiology and a Wiley Research Fellow of the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL).