A professor from Pune has been appointed as Secretary of the Department of Biotechnology by the central government. Dr Rajesh Gokhale teaches at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Pune.
“The Appointment Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of the Dr Rajesh S Gokhale, Professor, Department of Biology, IISER, for a period of two years or till attaining the age of 60 years with effect from the date of assumption of charge of the post or until further orders, whichever is the earliest”, read the order.
Professor Gokhale (54) is a chemical biologist who obtained his PhD from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and went on to pursue his postdoctoral studies at Stanford University in the USA. After he returned to India, he joined the National Institute of Immunology (NII) in Delhi as a faculty member. From the year 2009 to the year 2016, he was Director of CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) in Delhi.