Dr Gyanendra Pratap Singh took over as Director, Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, Karnal in August 4, 2016. Prior to joining as Director of IIWBR, Dr. Singh worked as Principal Scientist in prestigious Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi and is leading wheat breeder in the country. His main research area is Wheat improvement for abiotic stress, physiological phenotyping, MARS & MAB. He has developed 27 varieties of wheat and one variety of potato. Varieties like HD 2967 and HD 3086 occupy large area in the country. He is one of the first research scientist to implement International Wheat information system (IWIS) and Breeding Management Series (BMS), a database for incorporating a set of module, which is being used with accumulated data/breeders data with respect to molecular, phenotypic and pedigree information, thereby improving the efficiency of the crossing programme, selection evaluation and cultivar development.
Dr Singh is recipient of Dr. Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, Dr. BP Pal and, Dr. V S Mathur Memorial Awards. He is a fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India; and is presently Vice-President of Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding and Society of Advancement of Wheat Research.