Dr. Urmila Gupta, Principal Scientist (REE) in Department of Renewable Energy Engineering was appointed as Head of Department of Microbiology on Nov. 21, 2023. She completed her BSc (Medical) from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar in 1988. She completed Master`s and Doctorate (CSIR fellow) in Microbiology from College of Basic Sciences and Humanities, Punjab Agricultural University in 1990 and 1994, respectively.  She has had experience working as Lecturer in the Department of Microbiology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar from 1995 to 2005. She joined PAU in 2005 as Assistant Scientist (Biogas) under All India Coordinated Research Project on Energy in Agriculture and Agro-based Industries (ICAR). She has successfully implemented 29 AICRP (Bioconversion Technology Component) subprojects along with DST, UGC and industry funded research projects as PI/Co-PI. Dr Gupta has developed technologies for pre treatment of paddy straw and enhancing biogas production, Codi gestion of agro-residues, value addition of biodigester slurry, bioprospecting microalgal isolates from water logged areas of Punjab for biogas and nutraceutical properties, valorisation of paddy straw into industrially valuable products and preparation of bio enzymes from fruit and vegetable wastes. She has been granted a patent on “A fungal consortium for degradation of lignin and or silica, process therefor and application thereof”, which has been commercialized to a biofuel industry. A technology developed by her for preparation of bioenzyme from kinnow waste: a fermented organic cleanser, was approved by REC in 2023. She is life member of seven national and state scientific societies. She has published 75 peer reviewed research publications, nine full research papers and 65 abstracts in proceedings of conferences, ten book chapters, four bulletins and six popular articles. She has supervised 37 M.Sc. and 7 Ph.D. research theses till date. She has been chairperson/member of various committees at department, college and university level. She has been president of Athletic Women Committee and Social Secretary of COAET since 2008.