Harsh Vardhan Batra

Harsh Vardhan Batra is an Indian scientist working in animal biotechnology at the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), of the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology. He is a former director of the Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL), a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) establishment at Mysore (April 2012 – Dec 2015). As a specialist in infectious diseases, he participated in the DRDO biodefence preparedness program, and was an expert member of the technical advisory committee on plague constituted by the government of India in September 1994. He served as technical consultant for the design and construction of high containment laboratories for DRDO, the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). He participated in the United Nations Biological Weapons Convention (BTWC) ad hoc group meetings in Geneva as a member of the Indian delegation, and conducted World Health Organization (WHO) Southeast Asia Regional Office meetings and workshops on infectious diseases.

Senior scientific officer and head of the mycobacteriology laboratory, National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi from 1984 to Nov.1990. Scientist at DRDO in Gwalior from November 1990 to February 2006. Additional Director, DFRL, Mysore from February 2006 to April 2012 and Director from April 2012 to December 2015.

Earned MVSc in Bacteriology and Hygiene (1979) and PhD in Veterinary Public Health and Epidemiology (1985) from Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University in Hisar. In 1987 he conducted post-doctoral research at the Medical Research Council (MRC) in the Tuberculosis and Related Infections Unit at Hammersmith Hospital in London.