Ponnam Naresh joined WorldVeg HQ on 23 January 2017 as a Visiting Scientist to work in pepper breeding and biotechnology.  Dr. Ponnam completed his PhD in Horticulture and worked on a research project entitled “Genetic and molecular analysis of resistance to viruses (Cucumber mosaic virus and Chili veinal mottle virus), drought tolerance and fruit quality traits in chili (Capsicum annuum)” at the University of Horticultural Science, Bagalkot, India. In 2014 he was selected by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to join the ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research at Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India. WorldVeg Pepper Breeder Sanjeet Kumar, in consultation with Biotechnologist Roland Schafleitner, assisted Naresh in preparing an attractive application for the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) Overseas Postdoctoral Fellowship under the theme “Big data and high-performance computation in biology.” Naresh will work on bioinformatics to develop and validate markers for pest resistance and male sterility traits in peppers.