V S SeshadriDr. V.S. Seshadri is one of the earliest Cucurbit Breeders of the country, having a long association with the improvement of muskmelon, watermelon and cucumber over a span of nearly five decades. He was intimately connected with the identification ofhigh yielding quality varieties in muskmelon (Pusa Madhuras)and watermelon (Sugar Baby). In 1969, on FAO Fellowship, he worked on seedless watermelon at US Vegetable Breeding Laboratory, Charleston (SC) and this work was later on published as a Technical Bulletin of USDA, and also at US Horticultural Field Station, La Jolla (California) with Dr. T.W. Whitakerin U.S.A. His research achievements at IARI included detailed studies onthe several aspects of the crop plant muskmelon like production (F 1)breeding, resistance to diseases, phylogeny, sex mechanism, etc. For thefirst time in India, monoecious stocks were developed in muskmelon, which were later used in the evolution of F1 hybrid 'Pusa Rasraj' identified by All Indian Coordinated Vegetable Improvement Project at National level. Gynoecious sex form in muskmelon was isolated and gynoecious parentsin tropical cucumber were also developed. He was associated in the development of CGMM virus resistant lines in muskmelon. His interest inthe domestication and adaptation of introduced vegetable crops in India resulted in a comprehensive analysis of the history and the course of diversification of several introduced vegetable crops, for the first time. He specially studied on the diversification of muskmelon in India with investigations on the cytogenetic aspects, electrophoretic variation, genetic divergence, oil content in seeds and sex mechanism in both dessert andnon-dessert forms. He continued his interest in research on Vegetable Crops actively with Indo-American Hybrid Seeds (P) Ltd, as a Consultant and Associate Director (R&D) for nearly 10 years. His publications exceeded over 125 with several research articles, reviews, popular notes, national and international symposia presentations and chapters in books like"Vegetable Crops in India" (eds. T.K. Bose and M.G. Som), "Plant Breeding"(ed. V.L. Chopra) and "Cucurbits" (eds. N.M. Nayar and T.A. More). His research paper on cucumber (with his associates) was selected for Harbhajan Singh Award for 1991. He is a Fellow of Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding and Indian Society of Vegetable Science and Member of Cucurbit Genetics Cooperative, U.S.A (1980-1989). Read More Read Less