Dr. Digambar Gokhale has an illustrious career in microbiology and industrial biotechnology. He served as the Scientist-in-Charge of the NCIM Resource Centre (1999–2012), one of India’s oldest microbial culture collections, maintaining over 3,000 industrially important microbial cultures and facilitating their distribution to research organizations and industries.

He has significant international exposure, having worked with leading experts:

• University of Nottingham, UK (1985) – under the UNDP fellowship with Prof. Peberdy in fungal genetics and protoplast fusion.

• University of Manchester, UK (1990) – under ALIS-LINK program with Prof. Bu’Lock in bio-transformations.

• Korean Collection of Type Cultures (KCTC), Seoul, South Korea (2011) – as a visiting scientist.

Dr. Gokhale has also delivered lectures on biomass exploitation at international forums, including the Green Chemistry Conference in Beijing (2008).

Major Achievements

• Directed research, development, and production projects across a broad spectrum of products including amino acids, organic acids, natural flavoring compounds, pharmaceutical products, and industrial enzymes (lipases, cellulases, xylanases).

• Developed and isolated bacterial and fungal mutants with significantly enhanced production capabilities.

• Improved industrial strains to make them more suitable for large-scale production processes.

• Served as a reviewer for numerous high-impact journals including Bioresource Technology, Green Chemistry, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, and Nature Communications.

Research Contributions

• Publications: 101 (88 research papers, 12 reviews, 1 book chapter)

• Patents: 6 US patents, 4 Indian patents

Eligibility for Distinguished Scientist Award

Dr. Gokhale’s exceptional contributions to industrial microbiology and biotechnology, his pioneering work in microbial strain development, international collaborations, and extensive scholarly output make him highly deserving of the Distinguished Scientist Award. His leadership in maintaining one of India’s premier microbial culture collections and advancing industrial microbiology research demonstrates both national and global impact.