Om Rajora

Academic interests

• Forest Tree Genetics, Genomics and Biotechnology
• Molecular, Population, Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics of Forest Trees
• Structural, Functional, Population, Conservation and Environmental Genomics of Forest Trees
• Genomics of Responses, Acclimation and Adaptation of Forest Trees to Climate Change
• Local Adaptation and Evolutionary and Adaptive Genetic Potential of Marginal Populations under Climate Change
• Genetic Impacts of Forest Management Practices, Fragmentation, Natural Disturbances, Climate Change and Air Pollution
• Genetic Resource Conservation and Sustainable Management

Brief biography

Dr. Om Rajora received his BSc in Biology, MSc in Botany, and Law (LL.B.) degrees from Meerut University, Meerut, India. He earned his PhD in Forest Genetics from the University of Toronto. Dr. Rajora has been working on various aspects of forest genetics, genomics and biotechnology since 1981in Canada.

Dr. Om Rajora joined UNB Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management in 2005 as Professor and Senior Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Forest and Conservation Genomics and Biotechnology. He moved to UNB from Dalhousie University, where he was a Professor and StoraEnso Senior Chair in Forest Genetics and Biotechnology in the Department of Biology. Prior to joining Dalhousie University, Dr. Rajora was an Associate and Assistant Research Professor at the University of Alberta. He has also worked as a Professional Research Associate at the Plant Biotechnology Institute of the National Research Council of Canada, and as a Research Fellow at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Om Rajora is the Coordinator of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (UFRO) unit 2.04.01 “Population, Ecological and Conservation Genetics”. He was also the Coordinator of the IUFRO unit 7.01.04 “Impacts of Air Pollution and Climate Change on Forest Ecosystems – Genetics Aspects”. Dr. Rajora has served as an Associate Editor or Editorial Board Member of several international journals, and currently is an Associate Editor for Botany, Academic Editor for Forests, and Editorial Board member of a few other journals. He has served on many national and international science advisory boards and expert committees. Dr. Rajora is the recipient of many national and international awards, honors and distinctions. He is a frequently invited lead, plenary and/or keynote speaker at many international conferences.

Dr. Om Rajora has developed and led several pioneering and large-scale research projects. His research has spanned over several basic and applied aspects in genetics, genomics and biotechnology of forest trees, addressing critical issues: genetic diversity, population structure, evolution, phylogeography; genetics and evolutionary potential of central versus marginal populations; genetic effects of forest management practices, fragmentation, forest fires, and climate and environment change; conservation and sustainable management of forest genetic resources; genome mapping; transcriptome sequencing, gene discovery and reference transcriptome development; genetic basis of responses and adaptation of forest trees to climate change and air pollution; and genetic architecture of local adaptation to climate and traits related to growth and adaptation to climate change. He has published most of his research in high profile journals and has hundreds of research papers, book chapters, conference papers and presentations, and other articles to his credit.

Dr. Om Rajora developed a pioneering book series on Population Genomics. He is the Editor-in-Chief of this book series and editor or co-editor of about 10 volumes in this series, being published by Springer starting from 2017.

Courses taught

• Fundamentals of Forest Tree Physiology and Genetics
• Introduction to Environmental Studies
• Physiological Processes in the Forest
• Conservation Genetics
• Forestry Tree Genetics and Genomics
• Genetics (Biology Department)

Selected research

Rajora OP, Eckert AJ, Zinck JWR (2016) Single-locus versus multilocus patterns of local adaptation to climate in eastern white pine (Pinus strobus, Pinaceae). PLoS One 11(7): e0158691. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0158691.

Zinck JWR, Rajora OP (2016) Post-glacial phylogeography and evolution of a wide-ranging highly-exploited keystone forest tree, eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) in North America: Single refugium, multiple routes. BMC Evolutionary Biology 16:56; DOI:10.1186/s12862-016-0624-1.

Chhatre VE, Rajora OP (2014) Genetic divergence and signatures of natural selection in marginal populations of a keystone, long-lived conifer, eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) from northern Ontario. PLoS One 9(5): e97291. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0097291.

Bashalkhanov S, Eckert AJ, Rajora OP (2013) Genetic signatures of selection in response to air pollution in red spruce (Picea rubens, Pinaceae). Molecular Ecology 22: 5877–5889. DOI: 10.1111/mec.12546.

Fageria MS, Rajora OP (2013) Effects of harvesting of increasing intensities on genetic diversity and population structure of white spruce. Evolutionary Applications 6:778-794. DOI: 10.1111/eva.12064.

Kang B-Y, Mann IK, Major JE, Rajora OP (2010) Near-saturated genetic linkage map of black spruce (Picea mariana). BMC Genomics 11: 515. DOI:10.1186/1471-2164-11-515.