Dr Sundar Kalaipandian
Researcher biography
Dr Sundar Kalaipandian obtained his BSc (Agriculture) and MSc (Plant Breeding and Genetics) from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India. He worked as a senior research fellows at Sugarcane Breeding Institute in India. He then went to undertake his PhD in Biotechnology at Academia Sinica, Taiwan. He received a postdoctoral fellowship from Academia Sinica. He got a postdoctoral position to work at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and moved to Australia. He worked for University of Adelaide and Biosecurity Queensland. Then, he joined as a research fellow at the University of Queensland.
Sundar has developed expertise in genetics, plant breeding, biotechnology, genomics, and bioinformatics during his career. He has specialized in the development of abiotic and biotic stress tolerant varieties. He has worked in several crops including sugarcane, rice, maize, Arabidopsis, wheat, weeds, and coconut. He has experience in developing strong collaborations with national and international organizations, and private industries. Currently, his project focuses on coconut cryopreservation and tissue culture technologies for the Pacific coconut varieties. He is interested in commercialization of scientific technologies for farmers and bringing various technologies to field. Apart from scientific skills, he is taking various roles in preparation of collaborative agreements, biosecurity, project and budget management activities.