Dr. Nirrmala Kotharii – Chairperson, Board of Advisors – Neem Foundation

Dr. Nirrmala Kotharii : As the Chairperson of the Neem Foundation’s Board of Advisors, she has been associated with the Foundation since early days when the Foundation was trying to make its voice heard.

Dr. N. Kotharii, a biotechnologist, she Joined the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) as “Honorary Research Scientist” in Nov. 1989. At that time, NDDB was in process of setting up the Centre of Biotechnology at Bombay, under the supervision of Dr. K.K.G. Menon (former Vice President of Hindustan Lever Research Centre), overseeing the activities as Principal Scientific Advisor. In Sept. 1989, she was given the charge of Plant Tissue Culture Lab. on the advice of Dr. K.K.G. Menon. She was also working as a research associate since Jan. 1991, for a project funded by CSIR.

She was involved in Improvement of Banana – Using Tissue Culture technique (CSIR Scheme). Improvement of Groundnut economics – Using Tissue Culture technique (NDDB Project). Mericloning of Pineapple (NDDB Project)

She Joined TCI as Senior Scientist in Dec. 1993 to setup their Tissue Culture Project at Panvel.

Protocol Standardization for the cloning of the following Plant Varieties by Tissue-Culture Technique:

Banana (19 varieties), Groundnut (5 varieties), Pineapple, Neem, Potato, Begonia, Peperomia, African Violet, Philodendrons, Anthurium, Lily, Freesia, Hyacinths, Iris, Narcissus, Tulips, Rose, Tuberose, Gladiolus, Sugarcane.

Her contribution to the growth of the Foundation has been significant as she inspired many individuals & groups to come on board the platform of the Neem Foundation.

As the Conference Director of World Neem Conference & as the General Programme Secretary of Neem 2007 & 2012, she succeeded in roping in researchers & scientists for the different theme areas of the Conference to share their current & ongoing research to open new vistas in health care of Neem’s healing capability. Dr. N. Kotharii is also a practitioner of Naturopathy.

Dr. Kotharii currently lives in Mumbai, India.