Dr. Manjit Kang

Biography

Dr. Kang is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at Kansas State University, Manhattan. He served as Vice Chancellor (CEO) of the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) at Ludhiana (April 2007 to April 2011). He previously served for 21 years as Professor of Quantitative Genetics in the School of Plant, Environmental, and Soil Sciences, Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge (USA). Prior to that, he was a Sugarcane Geneticist (Assistant Professor) with the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) at the University of Florida (1981-1986). He acquired industrial experience in hybrid maize breeding when he served as Research Station Manager and Senior Plant Breeder at Cargill, Inc., Street Peter, Minnesota (1977-1979).

Dr. Kang specializes in quantitative genetics as applied to crop improvement. His expertise is widely recognized and he has received several prestigious honors and awards from various organizations. He is a Fellow of both American Society of Agronomy and Crop Science Society of America. He is also an honorary Fellow of: Indian Society of Life Sciences, Crop Improvement Society of India, and Punjab Academy of Sciences. He has served as Technical Editor of Crop Science and Editor-in-Chief of Communications in Biometry and Crop Science. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Crop Improvement and Book Review Editor as well as Technical Editor of Crop Science.

Dr. Kang was recognized by his Alma Mater (PAU) for his significant contributions to plant breeding and genetics at the 36th Foundation Day in 1997. In 1999, he was selected as a Fulbright Senior Scholar (teaching award) to Malaysia. He received from the Association of Agricultural Scientists of Indian Origin ‘Outstanding Agricultural Scientist Award for 2007’. He has served as a ‘Sigma Xi (Scientific Research Society) Distinguished Lecturer’ from July 2007 to June 2009. In February 2010, Amity University, Noida, bestowed on him ‘Amity Academic Excellence Award’. In 2011, he received from Guru Nanak Dev University-Amritsar the ‘Bishan Singh Samundri Lectureship Award’, sponsored by S. Jaswant Singh Rai Memorial Trust. Dr. Kang has served as Chair of the National Selection Committee for Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Scholar awards given by the US-India Educational Foundation (2010 and 2011). In 2013, he was recognized at the Third Jain-Advisor Agro-Dairy Fair in Paragpur (Punjab, India) with ‘Excellence Award in Agriculture Development’.

Dr. Kang has edited or co-edited and authored or co-authored 13 books, including:

• Agricultural and Environmental Sustainability: Considerations for the Future (2007; Haworth Press)
• Breeding Major Food Staples (2007; Blackwell Publishing), Water and Agricultural Sustainability Strategies (2010; CRC Press)
• Combating Climate Change: An Agricultural Perspective (2013, CRC Press)
• Crop Improvement: Challenges in the Twenty-First Century (2002; Haworth Press)
• Genotype-by-Environment Interaction (1996; CRC Press)
• GGE Biplot Analysis (2003; CRC Press), Genetic and Production Innovations in Field Crop Technology (2005; Haworth Press)
• Handbook of Formulas for Plant Geneticists and Breeder (2003; Haworth Press)
• Punjab Agriculture: The Challenges Ahead (2015; Aesthetics Publications).
• Quantitative Genetics, Genomics and Plant Breeding (2002; CABI Publishing)

He has published 150+ refereed journal articles in prestigious international journals, 40+ book chapters/encyclopedia essays, and 135 other technical publications.

Dr. Kang has lectured internationally on quantitative genetics as applied to crop improvement - in Hungary under the USDA/OICD sponsorship in 1992; in 1999, in Malaysia (Fulbright program); in 2005 at South Dakota State University (‘South Dakota Crop Improvement Association Lectureship’); at Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences at Kunming in 2006; at International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines (1999); and at International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria (2006, 2007). Dr. Kang has organized successful international conferences/symposia on Genotype-by-environment Interaction in Plant Breeding, Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Agricultural and Environmental Sustainability, Water Management Strategies for Food Security and Environment Quality, and Preparing Agriculture for Climate Change.

Education

• Ph.D. Genetics and Plant Breeding, University of Missouri-Columbia, 1977
• M.A. (Botany), Southern Illinois University (SIU)-Carbondale, 1977
• M.S. Plant Genetics, SIU-Edwardsville, 1971
• B.S. Agriculture & Animal Husbandry, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana (India), 1968