Dr. Dhruv Aditya Srivastava
I turn plant and microbe biology into practical, data-driven answers for agriculture: greenhouse and field trials, machine learning, and clear insight for growers and product teams.
Plant scientist · Data scientist · Ag R&D
What I work on
From trial design to data-driven decisions.
Biologicals & Nutrition
I study how soil microbes and inoculants trade nutrients with crops and help them cope with stress. At Penn State I look at how plant nutrition shapes the support maize gets from arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. At Missouri I ran ¹³C-labelling studies of carbon and nutrient exchange in mycorrhizal networks and led three RNA-seq projects on drought stress. Before that, in Israel, I worked on the grey-mould fungus Botrytis cinerea and on the biocontrol yeast Pseudozyma aphidis.
12+ years of research · 5 crops: maize, soybean, alfalfa, tomato, sorghum · 3 countries: India, Israel, USA
140 citations for our Nature Communications paper on how Botrytis overcomes plant defences · See publications →
Data Science & Ag R&D
I turn plant data into decisions. I design randomised greenhouse and field trials, then analyse them in R and Python: RNA-seq and WGCNA co-expression networks, ionomics, microbiome sequencing with QIIME, and machine learning. I completed the UT Austin postgraduate program in AI and machine learning, and I build my own tools, from SVM feature-selection pipelines to a neural network that identifies plant seedlings from photos.
377 citations · h-index 8 · 12 papers and book chapters
7 open-source projects on GitHub · 8 certificates in data science and AI · See projects →
What I bring to a team
Twelve years in labs, greenhouses and fields have given me skills that transfer directly to ag-tech, biologicals, crop science and data teams.
🧪 Trial design that answers the business question
Randomised greenhouse and field trials with the right controls and replication, so product decisions rest on solid evidence.
📈 Data to decision
From raw measurements to clear models and visuals. Reproducible pipelines in R and Python, plus AI/ML training from UT Austin.
🦠 Biologicals know-how
Mycorrhizal fungi, rhizobia, biocontrol yeasts and pathogens: the science behind inoculants and bio-based crop protection.
🧭 Project leadership
Led three RNA-seq projects end to end, won a postdoctoral research grant and mentored four students.
🗣️ Clear communication
30+ talks and posters, plus hands-on demos for farmers and students. I explain the science to agronomists, managers and growers.
🌍 Adaptable across teams
Worked in India, Israel and the USA, across molecular biology, pathology, physiology and data science.
Where I can add value: agricultural biologicals & inoculants · crop protection · ag-tech & precision agriculture · seed & breeding · greenhouse & controlled-environment farming · bioinformatics & data science
Experience
12+ years of hands-on R&D in India, Israel and the USA, now at Penn State: biologicals, plant disease, crop nutrition and data science.
2025 – now · Penn State University. Postdoc on maize and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: how nutrition shapes the partnership, using RNA-seq and network analysis.
2022 – 2025 · University of Missouri. Postdoc. Led three RNA-seq projects on drought stress, built WGCNA co-expression networks and ran ¹³C-labelling studies of nutrient exchange. Won a research grant and mentored four students.
2019 – 2022 · Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Postdoc on fungus–plant–biocontrol transcriptomics; gene knockout, RNAi and overexpression in fungi and plants.
2018 – 2019 · Volcani Center (ARO), Israel. Postdoc on how fungal and oomycete pathogens infect crops, plus microbiome analysis with QIIME.
2012 – 2018 · Hebrew University of Jerusalem. PhD in Plant Sciences on how barley acclimates to heat and drought.
About me
Plant scientist with 12+ years in biologicals, crop nutrition and plant disease, pairing crop trials with data science. Open to industry and academic roles.
370+
11
Publications
Citations
A biotechnology engineer by training (B.Tech., NIT Durgapur; M.Tech., IIT Guwahati), a plant scientist by PhD (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and a data scientist through the UT Austin program in AI and machine learning. I have worked with maize, soybean, alfalfa, tomato and sorghum, in the lab, the greenhouse and the field.
Outside work: hiking and writing poetry.
8
h-index
12+
Years in research
30+
Talks and posters
4
Students mentored
Get in touch
Open to R&D, biologicals, crop science, data science and ag-tech roles, and to research collaborations. Send me a message.
dhruvaditya88@gmail.com
Connect
Plant science, microbes and AI.
Contact
Follow
dhruvaditya88@gmail.com
© 2026 Dhruv Aditya Srivastava