The governor of Assam, Jagdish Mukhi, has appointed professor Pratap Jyoti Handique as the new Vice Chancellor (VC) of Gauhati University.

Earlier, the process of appointment of the new vice-chancellor (VC) of Gauhati University (GU) had been stalled since the Gauhati High Court had put in place a stay order on the selection process.

Dr. Pratap Jyoti Handique, a biotechnologist of repute, obtained Ph.D degree from Gauhati University in the year 1992. He did post-doctoral research on molecular biotechnology at Leicester University, UK during 2005-2006 in the laboratory of Professor JS Heslop-Horrison. Dr. Handique is one of the pioneer workers who worked for the development of Biotechnology in Assam as well as in North East India. He has been involved in frontline areas of research in Biotechnology for last 30 years. Dr. Handique has also attended several short-term training courses in the premier institutes like ICAR-IARI (New Delhi), IIT-Delhi, NBRI (Lucknow), CAZRI (Jodhpur), National Law School of India University on various aspects of Biotechnology and Intellectual Property Laws. 

Currently he is a Professor of Biotechnology in Gauhati University. He was the Head of the Department of Biotechnology, GU during the year 2010-2013. During the same period he was also the Member of Executive Council and Member of the Gauhati University Court; Chairman, DRC-Biotechnology and Chairman, CCS-Biotechnology. Besides, he worked as a “Coordinator – Administration and Logistics” in the GUIST (2009-2012).

Dr. Handique has coordinated and contributed in the formulations of the “State Biotechnology Policy of Assam” which has been declared by the Government of Assam under “Advantage Assam Policy” in 2017. Prof. Handique is a receipient of Fellow of Linnean Society (FLS) of London in the year 2017. He was awarded the prestigious “Biotechnology Overseas Associateship award, 2004-05” by the DBT, New Delhi. 

He has published over 145 research papers in national and international referred journals, 40 book chapters and over 200 popular science articles in English and Assamese language. He has developed two bioinformatics based ‘Database’ on Banana and Citrus; authored one research book on Medicinal Plants and edited two books on various aspects of Science and Technology. He has contributed over 100 DNA and gene sequences to biological databases. He has successfully completed 14 major R&D research projects funded by government agencies and 3 projects are ongoing. He supervised 36 Ph.D theses till August 2018 on various aspects. 

Prof. Handique is a registered NAAC assessor. In recent years, he has been leading a team of experts for conducting ‘Academic Audit’ in several colleges of Assam. He has been serving the Indian Society of Hill Agriculture, Ranisori, Uttarakhanda as Vice President since 2009 till date.

He is the DBT’s Nominee of the IBSC, Assam Agricultural University. He has also been associated as Chairman, Central Purchase Committee, IBSD (G.O.I.), Imphal (2012-2015); Member of State Medicinal Plant Board-Assam (2003-2009); and, General Secretary, North East Biotechnological Association (2003-2007). He served “Gahuati University Teachers’ Association” as its President during the year 2010-2011 and as Vice President during the year 2009-2010.