Dr. Dilip Kumar Ghosh, born in Hooghly district of WB, did his graduation from BCKV, obtained his MSc and PhD degrees from IARI, New Delhi in Plant Pathology specializing in Plant Virology. Subsequently, he joined ARS (ICAR) as Scientist at the ICAR-NRC for Citrus, Nagpur in 1995 and made valuable contributions by developing rapid and sensitive disease diagnostic tools for major citrus virus/virus-like pathogens including citrus greening disease, successfully implemented citrus bud-wood certification program and developed more than fifty five lakhs disease-free certified planting materials for the citrus growers of the country (Resource generation: Rs 15 crore). Dr Ghosh was also involved for the release of five citrus varieties viz. Cutter Valencia, US Pumelo-145, Flame Grape fruit, Nagpur Mandarin Seedless-4 and NRCC Pumelo-5 for commercial cultivation in the country.

Dr. Ghosh has been actively associated with the Indian Phytopathological Society for more than three decades, in various capacities such as Zonal Councilor (2006); Associate Editor (2011-13), Editor- Virology (2014); Organizing Secretary of West Zone IPS Conference in Nagpur (2006); Contributor/ Reviewer/ Evaluator of different IPS publications (1994-2022) etc and has been honoured with the Prof. J F Dastur Memorial Award (2019) and Fellow of the Society (2006).

Dr. Ghosh worked as Visiting scientist at the University of Florida, USA (2000-01; 2010), International FAO Consultant in Nepal (2011; 2012), Bhutan (2018) and visited other citrus growing countries like China (2008), Vietnam (2015), Brazil (2016), USA (2018), Thailand (2018) etc to participate in various international events.

Dr. Ghosh has published more than 65 Research articles in high impact factor journals and recently has been granted one US Patent (No. US11229608B2). He has also published 17 Book Chapters, 2 Books, 15 Extension Bulletins, 2 Extension Folder, 5 Popular articles, 5 Extension Calendars, 4 Training Manual and 480 NCBI Genbank Submissions. He has participated in more than 35 national and international seminars; organized three international training programs for scientists of Oman, Bhutan and Nepal as Course Director; organized two Conferences/ Symposiums on Plant Pathology as Organizing Secretary; organized four national training programs for the staff of SAU/ KVK/ICAR institutes and guided seven PhD students. He has been awarded with CHAI- Dr. RS Paroda Award (2022), Sardar Patel Outstanding ICAR Institution Award (2005, team Member), Outstanding Plant Virologist Award (Asian Plant Science Congress, Nepal, 2014), and also recipient of DBT/DST (GOI) travel grant to visit different foreign countries. Dr. Ghosh who joined as Director of ICAR- Central Citrus Research Institute in April, 2021 is currently the President, Indian Society of Citriculture, Nagpur (2022-2025), and Editor, Plant Pathology, British Society for Plant Pathology, UK (2018-2022). He worked as Associate Editor/ Editorial Board members of Indian Virological Society; Indian Phytopathological Society, Indian Journal of Mycology & Plant Pathology; Indian Journal of Plant Protection; Fellow of four different Scientific Societies of India; and Life member of different scientific societies viz. Indian Phytopathological Society (New Delhi), Indian Mycological Society (Kolkata), Indian Society of Mycology & Plant Pathology (Udaipur), Indian Virological Society (New Delhi), Indian Society of Citriculture (Nagpur). Dr. Ghosh is also a Member of different Academic / Policy-framing Bodies viz. MISA, University of Central Florida, USA (2018-21); ICAR-National Institute of Biotic Stress Management, Raipur (2017-19); ICAR- Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur (2011-13); University of Horticultural Sciences, Bagalkot (2021-23); Member, Prof. R. Mashalkar (Ex-DG, CSIR) Committee of Biotechnology, Govt. of Maharashtra (2007-09). If given a chance to shoulder the responsibility of IPS as President-Elect (2023), I am confident, with your active support and intense involvement, together we can and surely will make a positive difference in the programme and activities that IPS will undertake and grow in the coming years.