Dr. Yogesh Kumar earned his Ph.D. in Biotechnology from CSIR-IHBT Palampur in 2011. During his Ph.D. he worked on molecular characterization of geminiviruses prevalent in Northern India, wherein he discovered and characterized three novel geminivirus species. He has been working on unravelling the molecular mechanisms by which these viruses suppress RNA silencing. He has identified RNA silencing suppressor (RSS) proteins encoded by important geminiviruses and elucidated their sub-cellular localization. He also developed a multiplex-PCR based diagnostic method for diagnosis of begomoviruses and associated satellite DNAs. His research interests include investigation of the complex host-virus interactions underlying disease development at transcriptome level. Before joining DAV University, he has also served in Amity University, Noida from June 2011 to August 2013. He has 18 publications in peer-reviewed International journals, three chapters in edited books and presentations in various national and international conferences. He is executing research project titled “Unravelling host-pathogen interactions underlying disease development by velvet bean severe mosaic virus in medicinal plant Mucuna pruriens through transcriptome analysis” funded by CSIR (Rs. 34,96,000). He was awarded with Young Scientist Award by the Agro-Environmental Education & Farmers Welfare Society in 2022.