Indra and Vimla Vasil to receive joint lifetime achievement award
Indra Vasil, a graduate research professor emeritus with the Department of Horticultural Sciences, and his wife Vimla Vasil, a scientist emeritus with the department, have been named recipients of the first joint Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for In Vitro Biology. The award will be presented June 10 at the society’s annual meeting in Indianapolis.
The award is the highest honor the society bestows on individuals and recognizes significant contributions to in vitro biology, whether in plants, animals or people. The Vasils are best known for their research on cereal grains, particularly wheat.
“It is a great honor and it is really very satisfying in the sense that this is a formal recognition of our accomplishments by colleagues and peers,” Indra Vasil said.
The awards committee broke with tradition and named Vimla Vasil co-recipient of the award because she’s been a key player in her husband’s research for four decades.
“It’s completely appropriate that she be recognized,” Indra Vasil said. “Her contributions have been very significant.”
The Vasils were nominated by Trevor Thorpe, a professor emeritus with the University of Calgary’s Department of Biological Sciences, then chosen and approved for the award by SIVB committees.
Indra and Vimla Vasil earned their doctoral degrees from the University of Delhi, India, in 1958 and 1959, respectively. They worked at institutions in India and the United States for several years before arriving at UF in 1967.
Beginning in the mid-70s they focused mainly on cereal grain biotechnology, and both retired in 1999. They have more than 400 publications to their credit, including groundbreaking studies on the production of transgenic grains. Indra Vasil also edited 25 books, alone or in collaboration with others.
Indra Vasil is one of the top 100 most highly cited scientists in the world in plant and animal sciences, according to the science Web site ISI Web of Knowledge.
He has also made outstanding contributions in external professional service, notably with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, where he was founding chairman of the Biotechnology Action Council (BAC). In that position he was instrumental in setting up five biotechnology education and training centers worldwide and awarding more than 500 fellowships to scientists in developing countries.
In his capacity as chairman of BAC, and the Panel on Plant Cell Biology and Biotechnology of the International Cell Research Organization, he organized and directed 25 advanced international education and training courses in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States.
The Society for In Vitro Biology was founded in 1946 as the Tissue Culture Association. It focuses on biological research, development and applications of significance to science and society.
Comments:
From: Bhuvan Pathak, Department of Agronomy, University of Florida
Dr. Vasil,
It really gives me an immense pleasure to read that you have jointly been awarded with Life Time Achievement Award in In vitro studies.Being an Indian, the whole Indian community @ UF feels proud. I am pursuing my Ph.D. at Agronomy Dept under the guidance of Dr. Maria Gallo. I am also inspired to carry out high level research from your good self in future.
HEARTILY CONGRATULATIONS
BHUVAN PATHAK
From: Soumai Kant Joshi, Conservation of Biological Diversity Core Group, G.B. Pant institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Kosi-Katarmal, Almora (Uttarakhand) India
Respected Drs. Vasil,
It's a moment of great pleasure to have heard that you have been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for In Vitro Biology.
I feel privileged to congratulate you on this occasion.
As beginner in the field of plant biotechnology, I am finishing my Ph.D. thesis on Conservation and Utilization of Himalayan bulbuous medicinal plants.
I have been enriched a lot from your books and other publications.
With Best Regards,
Soumai Kant Joshi
Almora, India
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Indra Vasil and his wife, Vimla Vasil, share the first joint Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for In Vitro Biology.
