You are visiting the home page of Seshagiri Raghu Kumar. Broadly speaking, I would like to call myself a marine biologist, and more specifically a marine microbiologist and to be exact, a marine mycologist - that is someone who studies marine fungi.

I finished my B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Botany, all from the University of Madras. From my doctorate period onwards, I have been working on marine fungi. After a stint of 5 years working on the lower marine fungi, the thraustochyrids at the Institut fur Meeresforschung in Bremerhaven, Germany with Dr. Alwin Gaertner, I joined the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, India in 1982. My profession is also my passion and I like looking for the mycelial or higher fungi and the single-celled fungi called the thraustochytrids, estimating their biomass and trying to understand their role in ecological processes. I am now researching their use in several biotechnological applications.

I am happily married to Chandralata, who is my constant companion both at home and the laboratory. Lata too works on marine fungi and we share a lot of common interests. We have two children, our son Kaustubh who is presently studying electronics and our daughter Kadambari, who is just about to finish school. I am also fond of the good things in life. My hobbies are: tennis, swimming, music, good company and of late, SCUBA diving.

If you like a cyber communication, get in touch with me through my
E-mail: raghu@csnio.ren.nic.in
For a more personal contact phone Raghu at +91-(0)832-228947 (Residence) OR
for a scientific chat, +91(0)832-221322. Cheers.