Padma Shri Dr. Vijaypal Singh is Adjunct Professor in the school. He received his M.Sc. (Ag) in Agricultural Botany and Ph.D. in Agricultural Botany from Agra University, Agra. He retired as Principal Scientist cum Program Leader, Rice Project in January 2007

Dr. Singh has done Commendable work on understanding genetics of quality traits in rice in general and basmati rice in particular. Minimum acceptable quality standards for breeding basmati rice, developed by him are being followed in the rice breeding programs in the country. Apart from application oriented basic research, he has been actively engaged in the development of high-yielding aromatic and non-aromatic series, Pusa-2-21 and Pusa-44 have brought productivity revolution. 

The contribution of Dr. V.P. Singh to Basmati rice breeding is par excellence. Rice aroma, grain, Cooking & eating quality character are governed by Poly-genes, combining all these characters in the high-yielding genotypes, has been a challenging task. Dr. Singh’s revolutionary contribution through the development of Pusa Basmati-1, is a very rare piece of work. Since its release, Pusa Basmati-1 has contributed nearly Rs. 14,000 crores of foreign exchange earning to the nation and has brought prosperity to millions of Basmati farmers in Basmati growing belt of the country. 

Dr. Singh has been a member of experts committee of the Export Inspection Agency and APEDA (Ministry of Commerce, GOI), for several years. As a member of the basmati development fund of APEDA, he has been instrumental in establishing the Basmati Export Development Foundation (BEDF) and its most modern rice quality and bio-technology lab at Modipuram.

He has been awarded Padma Shree in 2012. He is the recipient of three ICAR awards namely, Hari Om Ashram Trust Award (1974-75), ICAR Team Award for Crop Improvement (2007); Jawahar Lal Nehru Award (1977); two awards from ICAR-IARI, New Delhi namely, 3rd Rao Bahadur Dr. B. Viswa Nath Award (2009) and B.P. Pal Memorial Award (2005). He is a fellow National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi.