Dr. Shalini Rajkumar graduated with B.Sc. (H) in Microbiology from University of Delhi followed by M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Microbiology from Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. She received IARI fellowship and was awarded Gold Medal for outstanding academic performance in M.Sc. During Ph.D., she qualified for National Eligibility Test (NET) and received Junior and Senior Research Fellowships from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). She was also awarded NET and Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) from Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). She has been associated with Institute of Science from its inception and currently teaches Genetic Engineering, Molecular Microbial Physiology and Agricultural Microbiology to M.Sc. students. She is also guiding five PhD scholars in the research area of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR). Four of her Ph.D. students have graduated and two have been accepted for Post Doc programs in USA and Japan. She has received four major research projects as PI, one each from Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Department of Science and Technology (DST, Govt. of India) and two from GSBTM (Govt. of Gujarat). She has published 33 research papers in high impact factor bearing reputed international journal (PLoS ONE, FEMS Microbiology Letters, Microbiology, Microbiological Research, Archives for Microbiology, Journal of Applied Microbiology, Current Research in Microbiology and Biotechnology etc. and national journals, presented papers and delivered invited lectures at National and International conferences. She has recently filed an Indian patent.

Molecular Physiology of PGPR - Breach of Rhizobial Legume symbiosis; Actinomycete diversity; Catabolite repression of MPS phenotype