The hype and wait has finally ended and the successor to the throne of DBT secretary has been chosen. Prof. Krishnaswamy VijayRaghavan is appointed as the new secretary of DBT. Prof. VijayRaghavan is also currently distinguished professor and director of the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore, which is a part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. An affable personality, he has been instrumental in positioning NCBS on the world map in the last few years. His efforts, along with others have resulted in the formation of the Bangalore Bio-Cluster consisting of inStem, C-CAMP, and NCBS, all housed in the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) campus in Bangalore. His contributions to research in understanding the cellular and molecular principles of adult muscle development in Drosophila were widely recognized. He is also a recipient of the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award (1998).

Congratulating Professor VijayRaghavan, Dr Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CMD, Biocon, tweeted, "Prof. VijayRaghavan's appointment as successor to Dr MK Bhan as secretary of DBT is a welcome news. He is a great asset to science and technology." She added that, "He made NCBS (a) world renowned leading centre of excellence in biological sciences with a great culture."

Prof. VijayRaghavan is considered as a very important member and decision maker of the research community in Karnataka. He has also been a member of the Constitution of Working Group of the Department of Biotechnology to review and assess the performance and role of the department at the end of the 11^th Five Year Plan and to identify priorities of the department for the 12^th Five Year Plan.

Last year he was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society. The citation for the same, best describes his vision and contributions to the development of scientific research in India. He has also worked to establish new institutions, drawing the best young scientists to India.

He completed his doctoral work in 1983 in the field of molecular biology and holds a PhD from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. During his post-doctoral work, from 1984-85, he was a research fellow and later from 1986-88, a senior research fellow at the California Institute of Technology. He then joined NCBS in 1992 and remains till date to be a key player in making it a world-class institution.