Lalji Singh

Born: 5 July 1947

Died: 10 December 2017

• He was an Indian scientist who worked in the field of DNA fingerprinting technology in India, where he was popularly known as the “Father of Indian DNA fingerprinting”.
• He also worked in the areas of the molecular basis of sex determination, wildlife conservation forensics and evolution and migration of humans.
• In 2004, he received the Padma Shri in recognition of his contribution to Indian science and technology.
• He founded various institutes and laboratories in India, including the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics in 1995, Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES) in 1998, and Genome Foundation in 2004, aiming to diagnose and treat genetic disorders affecting the Indian population, in particular the under-privileged people residing in rural India.
• He served as the 25th Vice Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and Chairman of Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi from August 2011 to August 2014.
• Before his term as Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University, he also served as director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) from May 1998 to July 2009 and Officer on Special Duty (OSD) of Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), Hyderabad, India in 1995–1999.
• In 1971–72, he worked as a research associate at the Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta and in April 1974, he was appointed as pool officer of CSIR.
• In 1974, he received the Commonwealth Fellowship to carry out research at the University of Edinburgh, UK, where he worked until 1987.
• During that time, he also worked as a guest scientist at the University of Calcutta, India, for a short period of time and visited the Australian National University in Canberra as a visiting fellow.

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