Dr. Rajesh S. Gokhale

Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India

Dr. Rajesh S. Gokhale is a distinguished Indian chemical biologist and the Secretary of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India, a role he has held since October 2021. He is on deputation from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, and previously served as Director of the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) and as a faculty member at the National Institute of Immunology. A chemical biologist by training (Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Science and postdoctoral work at Stanford University), he is known for his research on metabolic pathways in pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis and holds multiple prestigious awards including the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize and Infosys Prize. In his leadership at DBT, he drives national biotechnology initiatives spanning health, agriculture, industry and bio-manufacturing