Dr. Parmpal Singh Gill, is working as Principal Fruit Scientist in Department of Fruit Science, Punjab Agricultural University Ludhiana. The salient findings include the release of 06 fruit varieties and developed 13 production and 03 postharvest technologies for adoption at farmer’s level. He has published 160 research papers, 11 papers in proceedings, 12 book chapters, 03 review papers, 05 extended summaries and 02 teaching manuals. Handled 06 externally funded projects and participated in 19 national and international symposia/conferences. He received 4 best paper presentation awards. He has guided 15 M.Sc and 06 Ph.D students as Major advisor in disciple of Fruit Science and has taught 131 credit hours of UG and PG courses. Dr. Gill acted as external examiner for thesis of 03 Ph.D students. He is recipient of Fellow Award by Indian Academy of Horticultural Sciences, New Delhi; Fellow Award by Society for Promotion of Horticulture, ICAR-Bangalore; Young Scientist Award by Hi-Tech Horticultural Society and Fellow Award by Society of Plant Research, Meerut. He has delivered 07 Tv talks and 44 expert lectures to extension officials. He has conducted 14 vocational trainings and 100 short-term trainings for farmers and farm women’s.

Education: B.Sc., PAU, Ludhiana (1995); M.Sc., PAU, Ludhiana (1997); Ph.D., PAU, Ludhiana (2002)

Positions held: Assistant Horticulturist, (2000-2009), Horticulturist (2009-2015), Senior Horticulturist (2015- till date)

Field of Specialization: Pear, Pomegranate

Research Interests:

• Post-harvest management of fruits.
• Tree architectural engineering for improved fruit quality and yield.

Research Projects:

• Standardization of safer ripening techniques in mango funded by UGC, New Delhi
• Canopy management and plant architectural engineering in temperate fruits funded by ICAR, CITH Sringar
• Eco-friendly approaches to prolong the storage life of pear and peach fruits funded by UGC, New Delhi

Selected Research Publications (maximum up to 5):

1. Gautam, A, Gill, P.P.S., Singh, N.P, Jawandha, S.K., Arora, Singh, Arashdeep and Ajay 2024. Composite coating of xanthan gum with sodium nitroprusside alleviates the quality deterioration in strawberry fruit. Food Hydrocolloids. 155: doi.org/10.1016/j.foodhyd.2024.110208 (17.0)
2. Adhikary, T., Gill, P.P.S., Jawandha, S.K., Bharadwaj, R.D. and Anurag, R.K. 2021.  Efficacy of postharvest sodium nitroprusside application to extend storability by regulating physico-chemical quality of pear fruit. Food Chem. 346: doi.org/10.1016/ j.foodchem.2020. 128934 (NAAS: 14.50). 
3. Ajay, Gill PPS, Jawandha, SK, Singh NP and Kaur Preetinder 2023. Role of gum Arabic combined with cinnamic acid coating on quality and cell wall degradation enzymes of mango fruits at low temperature. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 259 doi.org/10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.129088 (13.70).
4. Sinha, A., Gill, P.P.S., Jawandha, S.K., and Grewal, S.K. 2022 Composite coating of chitosan with salicylic acid retards pear fruit softening under cold and supermarket storage. Food Res. Int. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2022.111724 (NAAS: 13.43).
5. Sinha, A., Gill, P.P.S., Jawandha, S.K., Kaur, P. and Grewal, S.K. 2022.  Salicylic acid enriched beeswax coatings suppress fruit softening in pears by modulation of cell wall degrading enzymes under different storage conditions. Food Packaging and Shelf life. 32: https://doi.org/10.1016/j. fpsl.2022.100821 (NAAS: 13.00).

Awards:

• Fellow Award, Indian Academy of Horticultural Sciences, New Delhi, India
• Fellow Award, by Society for Promotion of Horticulture, ICAR-IIHR, Bangalore, 2022.
• Fellow Award, Society for Plant Research, Meerut,  India
• Young Scientist Award, Hi-Tech Horticultural Society, Meerut, India.