2022 Distinguished Senior Faculty Research Award: Gireesh Rajashekara
At The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES), Gireesh Rajashekara looks for ways to make food safer and food animals healthier.
“The last 10 years, we have focused on a drug discovery, trying to identify novel antimicrobials for foodborne pathogens, animal pathogens, and also plant pathogens,” he said of his lab.
With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s regulations limiting the use of antibiotics in food production, Rajashekara’s lab is looking for “novel ways to control these pathogens that persist in these food animals.”
For his work, Rajashekara earned the 2022 CFAES Distinguished Senior Faculty Research Award. The award honors academic, disciplinary, and professional excellence in the college.
“Receiving this award means a lot to me,” Rajashekara said. “I have a 90% research appointment, so that means we’re expected to do a lot of research, and this award makes you feel that whatever you are doing is recognized by the college and the university.”
Rajashekara has been at Ohio State since 2006. He is a professor in the CFAES Department of Animal Sciences Center for Food Animal Health.
“My research is focused on food safety, zoonosis, and animal health,” he said. “We have been continuously also working with the technology commercialization office, trying to find companies that actually can take up our invention and then develop that into something that can be used in the commercial setting or the field setting.”
Rajashekara earned his PhD in microbiology from the University of Minnesota in St. Paul in 1999. He completed his doctorate in veterinary medicine from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India, in 1990.