DR SEEMA MISHRA, LUCKNOW

CATEGORY: SOCIAL WORK

Seema Mishra is a scientist at CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute. She has worked on various environmental issues and created awareness about arsenic contamination and its health consequences among the people of lower socioeconomic status. Arsenic contamination is a huge environmental concern worldwide affecting over 21 countries, including India. Seema has reviewed and reported that 18 Indian states and three union territories are suffering from arsenic contamination.

Seema is working on arsenic problem for more than 15 years. Seema’s research showed that arsenic accumulation in crops leads to reduced productivity and compromised nutritional value of cereal grains. She has identified several pollution tolerant plants which can be used for decontamination of water bodies, wetlands and soils, through a technique called phytoremediation. She has also identified six low arsenic accumulating rice varieties which can be safely consumed as per WHO recommendation. She has also developed a method for application of synchrotron-based techniques for investigation of arsenic and mineral nutrient distribution and speciation in intact plant tissues.

Till date, she has published 59 research papers, book chapters and popular science articles and has presented more than 30 research papers in national and international conferences. Seema has been conferred with 10 national and international fellowships. She was awarded the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship and DFG Fellowship from Germany. She has been honoured as honorary visiting scientist at Biology Centre of Czech Academy of Sciences, Budweise, Czech Republic. She has been selected as member of National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, and has been recently awarded ‘PHSS Young Woman Leadership Award 201617’ at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Nominated by Dr Suryakant