Sarwan Dhir
Fort Valley State University, USA
Biography
Sarwan Dhir is a tenured Professor of Plant Biotechnology and Director of the Center for Biotechnology at Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, GA. He received post-doctoral training at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Monsanto Agricultural Company in St. Louis (Bayer) in the area of genetic engineering and plant biotechnology. Since 2001, as a faculty member, he played a leadership role in the establishment of the Center for Biotechnology (Supported by NSF since 2001), developed the Plant Science-Biotechnology major (by restricting and developing 6 new courses), and founding director for Undergraduate Research Program. Besides full-time teaching appointments, as the PI, we received more than 15 million dollars from various funding agencies such as NSF (from 2001 to 2025), NIFA, and DoE. He has successfully directed NSF-funded “National Role Model” programs such as REU-Site in Biotechnology, HBCU-UP, and S-STEM scholarship program since 2001. He has served as a faculty mentor to place more than 485 students in summer internship programs at major institutions, federal labs, and industries and mentored more than 625 undergraduates to prepare their abstracts and present their research at national and international scientific meetings, winning more than 105 awards. He has mentored, 212 Pre-bridge program students, and out of those, 198 enrolled at FVSU and 152 chose STEM majors. Every year, he provides financial support to students enrolled in the Plant Science-Biotech program to 35-40 students in scholarships amounting to $4,200 per academic year for 4-years. He has served as a research mentor for more than 55 middle and high school students and helped them to develop award-winning science fair presentations at national and international science fair competitions. He is a winner of the 2005 White House-Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) from President George Bush in STEM, a two-time Outstanding Mentoring Excellence Award from NSF HBCU-UP program, and the John W. Davidson Award for Outstanding Teaching and Outstanding Million Dollar Grantsmanship Award given by the FVSU Foundation.