Department of Food Science and Technology

• Honored with “Young Scientist award” by Mycological Society of India (MSI) in November, 2018


• Honored with “Young Scientist award” in a national conference organized by Dravidian University, Kuppam, on “Current Status and Future Prospects in Life Science Research (CSFPLR-2019)” in March 2019.

Honored with “BIRAC-GYTI” 1.00 lakh appreciation award in February-2018, for continuing project on “Pharmacology and Phytochemistry of Randia Dumetorum”
Obtained 1st Prize for oral presentation in a national conference organized by Christ University (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, on “National Conference on Emerging Trends in Production of Biofuels” in July, 2018.

• Obtained Best oral presentation in a national conference organized by Sahyadri Science College, shimoga, on “National conference on Biosciences” in March 2017.


• Obtained Best oral presentation award in an international conference organized by Thiruvalluvar University, Vellore, on “Recent advances in bioresource technology-RABT 2017” in February, 2017. Qualified KSET (Lectureship) in 2016 an exam for eligibility of lectureships, conducted by Govt. of Karnataka.


• Qualified ICAR-NET (Agricultural Microbiology) in 2017 an exam for eligibility of lectureship, conducted by Govt. of India.


• Obtained Devaraj Urs OBC fellowship during the year 2015-2018 to pursue Ph.D programme in microbiology by Backward classes department, Government of Karnataka


• Participated in the state level quiz competition“Mastermind-Y2K2”, conducted by student science club, secured 23rd rank in state level.

• Mohankumar, S., & Savitha, J. (2017). Wheat flour, an inexpensive medium for in vitro cultivation of coprophilous fungus Coprinopsis cinerea. Current Research in Environmental & Applied Mycology, 7(3), 144-154.


• Mohankumar, S., & Savitha, J. (2019). Characterization of physicochemical properties of chitin extracted from Coprinopsis cinerea, a coprophilous fungus. Kavaka, 52(1), 98- 102.


• Mohankumar, S., & Savitha, J. (2019). Antibacterial activity of extracts of Coprinopsis cinerea, a coprophilous fungus against multidrug resistant nosocomial pathogens. Clinical microbiology and research, 2(1), 2-8.


• Mohankumar, S., & Savitha, J. (2019).Optimization of process parameters for enhanced production of mycelia biomass by a coprophilous fungus Coprinopsis cinerea: A statistical approach. Journal of Applied Biology & Biotechnology. Manuscript under revision.

Completed a project on “BIRAC-GYTI, 1.00 lakh appreciation award” for “Pharmacology and Phytochemistry of Randia Dumetorum”.

Antimicrobial Activities of Leaf extracts of Moringa oleifera against pathogens.

Study of Biodiversity of Economically Important Plants of Euphorbiaceae in Shimoga district.

Isolation and characterization of chitinase producing bacteria and evaluation of their bio-control activity against pathogens.

Isolation and identification of bioactive compounds from the coprophilous fungus

Coprinopsis cinerea.

Science Exhibition project on “Bhopal Gas Tragedy”.

Techniques Known: - Laboratory handling, Chromatography, Sterilization, Fermentation, Staining, Electrophoresis, Centrifugation, Spectroscopy, Downstream processing of Secondary metabolites, Immunological methods.

• Mohankumar, S., & Savitha, J. (2018). Antibacterial activity of oleamide, a fatty acid amide against ESKAPE pathogens. Oral presentation in the international symposium on “Fungal Biology: Advances, Applications and Conservation (INSFB 2018) & 45th Annual meeting of Mycological Society of India (MSI)”, November 19-21, 2018 organized by MACS’ Agharkar Research Institute, Pune 411004. Awarded with “M. J. Thirumalachar, Young Scientist award”.


• Mohankumar, S., & Savitha, J. (2018). Production of endoglucanase a biofuel enzyme from Coprinopsis cinerea and its optimization using response surface methodology. Oral presentation in the national seminar on “Emerging trends in production of biofuels and their impact on global economy (ETPBIGE)” organized by Christ (Deemed to be Univesity), Bangalore from 27-28 July, 2018. “Awarded with First prize for oral presentation”.


• Mohankumar, S., & Savitha, J. (2017). Antimicrobial activity of culture filtrates of Coprinopsis cinerea, a coprophilous fungus-An in vitro study. Poster presentation in the national conference on “Fungal biology- Recent trends and future prospects ” organised by Mycological Society of India (MSI) and Department of Botany, University of Jammu, Jammu Tawi, on Nov 16th - 18th 2017.


• Mohankumar, S., & Savitha, J. (2017). Growth and biomass production of Coprinopsis cinerea, a coprophilous mushroom in a novel wheat flour medium. Oral presentation in the international conference on “Recent advances in Bio resource technology- RABT 2017” organised by Department of Biotechnology, Thiruvalluvar university, Vellore on Feb 15th - 17th 2017. “Awarded with First prize for oral presentation”.


• Mohankumar, S., & Savitha, J. (2016). Coprinopsis cinerea, a coprophilous mushroom is a promising organism against multidrug resistance bacteria. Oral presentation in the national conference on “Microbial diversity: exploration and exploitation” organised by VIT, Vellore on July 8th and 9th 2016.


• Mohankumar S and Savitha Janakiraman-“Extraction optimization of bioactive polysaccharides from Coprinopsis cinerea, a coprophilous fungi using response surface methodology”. Oral presentation in the national seminar on “Advances and innovations in biotechnology multidisciplinary approaches to food, health and Environmental & energy issues” organized by Dayanand sagar institutions and society for biotechnologists (India) on 15-16 November, 2018.

• Participated in a National conference on “Phytochemicals and Microbial Bioactive compounds” organized by Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Bangalore University, Bangalore, on 3rd and 4th October, 2019.


• Participated in National conference on “Agriculturally important microorganism”-AIM- organized by Department of Agricultural microbiology, GKVK in 2014


• Participated in International conference On Science and technology organized by Mysore university in 2016


• Participated in International conference on Environment organized by Department of botany, Bangalore university in 2016


• Participated in National conference on Microorganisms exploration and exploitation organized by VIT, Vellore in 2016


• Participated in the seminar on “Chemical composition & Uses of Medicinal Plants of Malenadu region” conducted by Sahyadri Science College, Shimoga in 2006

• Attended 05 days workshop on “Biophysics Tools and Techniques” organized by the department of physics in collaboration with the department of life science. Bangalore University from 29th October to 2nd November 2018.


• Attended a “Hands on workshop on nutraceuticals and analytical methods” organized by Padmashree Institute of Management and Sciences (PIMS) in association with Waters India Pvt. Ltd and Dextrose Technologies, on 18th and 19th May 2018


• Attended two days national workshop held on 10th and 11thJanuary 2019 titled 'Technical writing and Publications, Grant Proposals, Funding Agencies and Soft Skills in Scientific Research’ at Mysore university campus.


• Attended two days workshop on “R programming: for statistical analysis” organized by Department of statistics Bangalore university on 24 and 25th January 2019


• Attended BIRAC Sponsored Hands on skill development Program on downstream processing in KIIT University, Bhubaneswar from 20-24, January 2020.


• Attended BIRAC Sponsored Hands on skill development Program on upstream processing in ICT, Mumbai from 3-7, February 2020.