Dr Manish K. Pandey is currently working as Principal Scientist and leading the global efforts on Genomics, Prebreeding & Bioinformatics in groundnut and pigeonpea at ICRISAT. Dr Pandey is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Australia a distinguished Professor, at the Institute of Crop Genetic Resources of Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (SAAS), and a Minjiang Scholar Lecturer Professor at Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fujian, China.
Dr Pandey is an Indian citizen and completed his Ph.D. (Plant Genetics & Genomics) from Osmania University and ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR), Hyderabad, India in 2011. Dr Pandey also had Post-doctoral research experience at the University of Georgia, USA for two years.
Dr Pandey’s research interests include developing and deploying genomic resources and tools such as high-quality denovo reference genomes, gene expression atlas, pangenome, functional genomics, sequencing-based trait mapping, and discovery of candidate genes and superior haplotypes followed by the development of diagnostic markers. Dr Pandey's recent efforts have also captured areas such as genomic selection and haplotype-based breeding.
Dr Pandey’s key contributions include reference genome sequence for diploid progenitor and both the subspecies of cultivated tetraploid groundnut, and also reference genome and pangenome for pea; gene expression atlas, low to high-density SNP genotyping assays, diagnostic markers for key traits, quality control panel, marker-assisted pyramiding and genomic selection in groundnut. He deployed genomics-based breeding for developing three high oleic groundnut varieties which are released for cultivation in India. He has published more than 200 scientific articles (>10000 citations) in various journals of international repute including Nature Genetics, PNAS-USA, and Molecular Plant. Dr Pandey's efforts have been recognized at the international level as he has been invited to deliver presentations at several international conferences and review the proposals for international funding agencies and he is collaborating with a large number of scientists at the international level. Recognizing his contribution, Dr Pandey is now been inducted into many scientific academies of India namely as a Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS)-New Delhi and Telangana Academy of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS)-Telangana, Associate Fellow of NAAS-New Delhi, TAAS-Telangana, & Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Agricultural Sciences (APAS)-Andhra Pradesh, and Member of The National Academy of Sciences-India (NASI). Dr Pandey was also among the top 2% highly cited researchers in 2019-2022 compiled by Stanford University, USA.