Dr. Agepati Raghavendra will present the seminar “Photorespiration in Plants: Not an Unavoidable Evil, But Essential for Stress Adaptation” on Tuesday, July 30, 2013 at 11:00 AM in E228 Beadle Center, UNL, Lincoln, NE.

Agepati Raghavendra earned BSc (1969), MSc (1971) and PhD (1975), all from Sri Venkateswara University. Recipient of the Humboldt Foundation Fellowship, Germany. He has collaborated with scientists from Japan, France, Germany and UK for extended periods. He started his career as Scientist at Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (ICAR) in 1974; Assistant Professor, Botany Department, Sri Venkateswara (SV) University, Tirupati (1976-82); Deputy Director and Head, Plant Physiology Division, Rubber Research Institute (1982-85); and Associate Professor (1985), Professor (1996), Department of Plant Sciences, and Dean, School of Life Sciences (2004), all at University of Hyderabad.??

Academic & Research Achievements: Raghavendra’s contributions include the discovery of several C4 plants, C3-C4 intermediates; regulation of C4-phosphoenolpyruvate essentiality of mitochondrial respiration for optimizing photosynthesis and mitochondrial enrichment in bundle sheath cells as the basis of reduced photorespiration in C3-C4 intermediates. Later he extended his work into the mechanisms of stomatal function. Some of his techniques of isolating active mesophyll protoplasts from pea and monitoring pH in plant cells proved to be very popular and innovative. He has published more than 185 research papers, and authored a number of reviews and book chapters, besides a highly referred book on Photosynthesis.