Dr. Jyoti K Sharma, Former Director, Kerala Forest Research Institute, Kerala, India, a Fellow of Phytopathological Society of India, has over 40 years’ of research experience in the field of Forest Pathology, Forestry and Natural Resources Management. Dr Sharma also held additional charge as the Member Secretary, Kerala State Biodiversity Board, Trivandrum, December during the formative years 2005 – 2007 drafting the State Biological diversity rules. He was the founding Professor and Dean, School of Environment and Natural Resources, Doon University, Dehradun.He has over 20 years’ of teaching experience.

He started his career as a Lecturer in Department of Botany, Agra College, Agra in 1967 teaching undergraduate and postgraduate classes. Later, he joined Department of Forestry, Australian National University as a Post-Doctoral Fellow/Visiting Fellow during 1974 – 1978 where he did pioneering work on rust diseases of poplars. Subsequently, in 1978 he joined as Head of Forest Pathology Division in a newly established Kerala Forest Research Institute, where he organised the Forest Pathology Division and conducted research on several tropical tree species, especially eucalypts and teak. He also filed two patents on unique process of teak cloning and design of a field mist chamber for vegetative propagation. He was promoted in 1997 as the Research Coordinator in the Institute. During 1999, he was appointed as the Director Kerala Forest Research Institute and continued in the post until mid-2007 when he joined Doon University. Dr. Sharma has guided 7 doctoral students and published more than110 research papers in national and international journals, books and conference proceedings. Most of his research papers have been published in international journals of repute.

He served as an FAO/IPGRI Expert Member in Expert Committee to Frame Guidelines for safe movement of Eucalypt germplasm in Bangkok, Thailand (November, 1995) and Pine germplasm in Opocne, Prague, Czech Republic (October, 1996).

He worked as an International Forestry Consultant, FAO (UN) in Vietnam, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, East Timor, Thailand working on various forestry problems ranging from Eucalypt diseases in Vietnam, prioritizing forestry research in Myanmar, Assessing leasehold and community forestry in Nepal, drafting a project for biodiversity rules for Bhutan, and drafting Forestry Act for Thailand to promote forestry in private lands in Thailand.

Dr Sharma was Chairman/Coordinator, International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO) Working Party 7.02-07 on Diseases of Tropical Plantations, 1990-2000 and organized and chaired WP Symposium on “Management of Diseases of Economic Importance in Tropical Plantations” during XX World IUFRO Congress in Finland, August 1995 and on “Impact of Diseases on the Sustainability of Tropical Forests” during XXI World IUFRO Congress, August 2000, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Dr Sharma has been the recipient of several research fellowships awarded by British Council, Commonwealth Foundation (U.K), NORAD, Norway, JICA, Japan, International Timber Trading Organization (ITTO), Tokyo.

He has been a member of several expert committees of Ministry of Environment & Forests and Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. Currently he is member of Advisory Committee for Ecosystem Research Programme (EcRP) in MoEF & CC and Research Coordination Committee, Central Silk Board, Ministry of Textiles, GOI.