Renowned geneticist K. Thangaraj has been conferred with the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar (Vigyan Shri category) 2025 by the Central government for his longstanding contributions to biological sciences.

A scientist at CSIR-CCMB, Hyderabad, he has spent over three decades studying population genetics and medical genomics. His landmark research established that the Andaman tribes were the first modern humans to migrate out of Africa around 65,000 years ago, and that Indian communities have practised endogamy for nearly 2,000 years, leading to population-specific recessive diseases.

Currently, he is working on identifying genetic variations linked to such diseases and provide genetic counselling to help prevent them in future generations. Mr.Thangaraj also leads two national mission programmes — GenomeIndia and Paediatric Rare Genetic Diseases. He has previously received several prestigious honours, including the CSIR-Bhatnagar Fellowship and the JC Bose Fellowship, a press release informed on Monday.