29/04/2025
Distinguished scientist and Officiating VC of Sikkim University passes away
Jyoti Prakash Tamang (born 16 November 1961) is an Indian food microbiologist, working on fermented foods and alcoholic beverages of the Himalayan regions of India, Nepal and Bhutan and South East Asia for last 39 years and the Senior Professor in Microbiology of the Sikkim Central University. Known for his studies on fermented food, Prof. Tamang is an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (FNA), National Academy of Science, India (NASI),National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Indian Academy of Microbiological Sciences and the Biotech Research Society of India. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences in 2004, and International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)-Mountain Chair (2019-2022). Prof. Tamang was nominated as Global Kimchi Ambassador by World Institute of Kimchi of Government of South Korea.
Biography
Jyoti Prakash Tamang was born on 16 November 1961 in the mountain district of Darjeeling in the Indian state of West Bengal.[1] He completed his schooling at Turnbull High School, Darjeeling in 1977 and class XII at the St Joseph's College, Darjeeling in 1979.[2] His undergraduate education was at the Darjeeling Government College of North Bengal University from where he passed B.Sc. honors in 1982 and continued at the institution to earn an M.Sc. in microbiology in 1984, passing the examination winning a gold medal for academic excellence.[3] He started his career in 1986 as an associate professor at the department of botany of Sikkim Government College, Tadong where he worked until 2011. Simultaneously, he enrolled at North Bengal University for his doctoral studies and after securing a PhD in microbiology in 1992, he did his post-doctoral work at two institutions abroad during 1994–95; first at the National Food Research Institute, Tsukuba with a fellowship from the United Nations University-Kirin Brewery Company and, later, at the Institute of Hygiene and Toxicology, Karlsruhe, on a fellowship received from Volkswagen Foundation. In 2011, he joined Central University Sikkim (CUS) as a member of faculty and has been serving the institution since then. He has held various positions at the university which included those of an academic coordinator, the dean of the School of Life Sciences, the registrar (the first registrar of the university) and a professor (presently the senior-most professor at CUS). He also serves as the officiating vice chancellor of the university.[4] In between, he had a short stint at the Research Institute of Humanity and Nature of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Kyoto as a visiting professor during 2009–10.[1] He was also visiting professor in Chonbuk National University Hospital, Jeonju, South Korea and AIST, Tsukuba in Japan.
