Centre for Conservation and Utilisation of Blue Green Algae, Division of Microbiology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India.

Dr. Dolly Wattal Dhar is at present working as Principal Scientist at Centre for Conservation and Utilisation of Blue Green Algae and as Professor at Division of Microbiology, Indian Agricultural Research institute. She has been working on various aspects of cyanobacteria and other microalgae for last thirty years. Her areas of interest have been on basic and applied research on physiology, ecology and related aspects including strain selection and improvement for nitrogen fixing potential, value added products like biopolymers, natural colours, proteins, etc. in cyanobacteria. She has also been associated with cyanobacterial germplasm enrichment, biodiversity analysis using DNA finger printing techniques (RAPD, RFLP, 16SrRNA gene amplification and AFLP) for phylogenetic relatedness, cyanobacterial diversity from extreme environments, abiotic stress tolerance mechanism and bioprospecting. She has worked on the role of blue green algae and Azolla in Integrated Nutrient Management in rice wheat cropping system, waste water management and N and P scavenging potential. Recently her interest has also been on the potential of microalgae in the area of biofuels. She is also associated with the teaching of courses for M.Sc. and Ph. D. students in the area of Agricultural Microbiology and also guides students for Master’s and Doctoral degree. She has travelled abroad and visited some countries under International academic assignments. She has more than one hundred and fifty publications and has papers published in National as well as International journals of high repute.