Dr. Kitherian Sahayaraj
Associate ProfessorSaint Xaviers College (Autonomous), India
Highest Degree
D.Sc. in Zoology from University of Madras, Chennai, India
Share this Profile
Highest Degree
D.Sc. in Zoology from University of Madras, Chennai, India
Share this Profile
Dr. Kitherian Sahayaraj is Associate Professor and Director of Crop Protection Research Centre, at St. Xavier’s College, Palaymkottai affiliated to Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli. Dr. Sahayaraj earned his B.Sc. & M.Sc. degrees in Zoology (1985, 1987) and M.Phil. & Ph.D. also in Zoology with a specialization in Agriculture Entomology (1988, 1992) from Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, India and a PGDCA from the same University in 2001. He also earned a PG Diploma in Plant Protection (PGDPP) (2007) from the Annamalai University, India. He stood fifth in rank in the M.Sc. examination of Madurai Kamaraj University in 1987. He has been teaching Zoology including Entomology to B.Sc. & M.Sc students for more than 22 years. He is a recognized Fellow of six national societies/academic bodies. Dr. Sahayaraj has published five books and one proceeding on Ecofriendly Insect Pest Management. He has more than 198 publications to his credit, including original research papers, book chapters, and popular articles in Insect Ecology, Behavior, Biology and Physiology, as well as numerous papers on Biological Control Efficacy of Reduviids, Botanicals and Fungal Pathogens. He has been honored with several awards from regional (Best Researcher in Science, St. Xavier’s College), national (Scientists of the year-2008, NESA, New Delhi; Young Achievers Award-2010 by SADHNA, Solan; Bharat Seva Ratan Gold Medal Award-2014 by GEPRA, New Delhi; Bharat Seven Rethan Gold Medel by GEPBRA, New Delhi) and international agencies (Hyoshi Environmentalist Award, Japan; YOUNG IOBC travel grant awardee). Over the past 28 years, Dr. Sahayaraj’s research efforts have been dedicated to Multidisciplinary, Integrated Approaches to understanding how Reduviids Distribute and Diversify in various Ecosystems, and how their adaptive characters can be applied to Pest Management, especially through Biointensive Pest Management. He has operated thirteen research projects funded by national (DST, DBT, CSIR, MOEs, MEFs) and international (IFS) funding agencies. He has also received grants on several occasions for conducting farmers’ and students’ training programmes and international conference on Biopesticides and international travel grant from TWAS, CSIR, DST, TNSCST, MES, ICMR, ICAR and UGC. He has guided more than 18 Ph.D. scholars and supervising two researchers. He has been regularly transferring the laboratory finding to the neighborhood farmers and offering guidance to them on BIPM. For a better understanding and pursuance by farmers, he brought out 05 manuals/books in Tamil. He is managing editor for Journal of Biopesticides, associate editor for Communication in Biometry and Crop Science, Warsaw Agricultural University, Poland, Journal of Pradushan Nirmulan, India, Eurasian Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Medicine, International Journal of Mosquito Research and member of editorial board and technical editor for number of journals. He is also serving as reviewer for many journals. He also delivered number of invited lectures conferences, symposium, and training programme.