Dr. J.N. Govil (b. 1945): Obtained his Master's and Doctorate degrees from Agra University, Agra, India. In his career span of 41 years research experience at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, Dr. Govil has been involved in the breeding of cross-pollinated, often cross-pollinated, and self-pollinated crops. His research is mainly focused on breeding for better quality, disease resistance, and for higher productivity in Pennisetum, Sorghum, maize, chickpea, and pigeonpea. Dr. Govil has been well exposed to the international scientific community through various training programmes. He took his training in "Plant exploration and collection techniques" through IBPGR in 1982. He was also awarded the prestigious FAO/IBPGR Fellowship in "Genetic resources, evaluation, and data preparation and management" at the University of Birmingham, UK. In 1983, he made visits to gene banks located in Europe. He also participated in various international seminars and conferences, including "Food and Legume Improvement for Asian Farming Systems" in Thailand in 1986. Dr. Govil is credited with more than eighty research papers in various journals of national and international repute in various aspects of genetics, crop breeding, and topics on general agriculture. He has written and edited a number of books on medicinal Plants (2 Vols each of two Titles) and other books with international authors. A new series "Recent Progress in Medicinal Plants" has been published by Studium Press, LLC, USA in 25 volumes under Dr. Govil's Chief Editorship. Dr. Govil has been Editor-in-Chief of the Journals, New Botanist (An International Journal of Plant Research) and Glimpses in Plant Research, since 1988. He has also guided more than a dozen post-graduate students. Dr. J.N. Govil was actively engaged through his leadership on pigeonpea breeding with special emphasis on "Breeding short duration pigeonpea varieties for improved management and low input conditions." Through his intensive efforts over the last 20 years, nine varieties of early pigeonpea in arhar-wheat rotation have been released at national level. Currently, Dr. Govil has retired from ICAR and has joined as Publishing Director and Managing Editor with Studium Press LLC, USA.
