Despite being a busy administrator, JKAS officer Dr Shakil Bhat won’t give up his research and academic interests. He has not only completed his PhD recently from Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir but also won a post-doctorate fellowship from the University of California’s Davis’ Animal Sciences Department, USA.

Dr Shakil recently completed his PhD programme from the Division of Animal Biotechnology, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, SKUAST-K with 25 high-impact publications in peer-reviewed journals like Plos One, BMC Genomics, Frontiers in Genetics and Nature Scientific Communications etc.  Working under the mentorship of Prof S Mudasir Andabi, Prof. Riaz A Shah and Prof Nazir A Ganai (Vice Chancellor, SKUAST-K), Dr Shakil recently defended his thesis titled “Transcriptomic and Proteomic profile of Bovine milk in Indigenous and Jersey Cattle of Kashmir Valley for Milk Quality Traits”, in an open defence seminar. On the occasion, Vice Chancellor congratulated Dr Shakil on the successful completion of his PhD degree and on setting a new benchmark for research by exploiting the opportunities provided by the university. “SKUAST-K has ventured into providing state of art infrastructure for creating suitable and competent human resources that will lead us to be a part of the fourth industrial revolution that will ensure technology-driven solutions to societal issues,” said Dr Nazir.

During his PhD tenure, Dr Shakil qualified for the much-coveted state service examination (JKAS) and is currently working in the department of Rural Development and PR as a block development officer (BDO) at Kellar, Shopian.

Meanwhile considering his research contributions Dr Shakil has recently been offered a prestigious Postdoctoral Fellowship by one of the leading laboratories at the University of California, Davis’  Animal Sciences Department, USA.

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