Dr.N. Kumaravadivel did his B.Sc (Ag.) at AC&RI, Coimbatore (GPA: 3.90/4.00) during 1980-84 and M.Sc., (Ag.) in Plant Breeding and Genetics in the Dept. of Agri. Botany, AC&RI, Madurai (GPA: 4.00/4.00)during 1985-86. He did his Ph. D., in Plant Breeding and Genetics at School of Genetics, TNAU, Coimbatore (GPA: 4.00/4.00) in 1987-90.His Ph.D. research work was on sorghum Biotechnology. The research paper "Plant regeneration from sorghum anther cultures and field evaluation of progeny" was published in Plant Cell Reports 13: 286-290, 1994.It is the first report on successful regeneration of doubled haploids in sorghum and demonstration of their possible utilization in crop improvement. He received Mrs. Mercy Ponniah and Dr. B. W.X. Ponniah Prize for the best Ph.D., Thesis in Plant Breeding and Genetics (1989-1990), Dr. Ramiah Prize andDr. M.S. Swaminathan Prize for the best Ph. D, student in Plant Breeding and Genetics (1989-1990). During 1991-94, Dr. N. Kumaravadivel worked as a Post DoctoralFellow with Dr. John Mullet, Texas A&M University, USA on tagging genes for post flowering drought tolerance ‘stay green’ in sorghum with molecular markers. Later, in 1994-95, he worked as a Post Doctoral Fellow with Dr. N. Huang, IRRI, Philippines, on marker-assisted selection and pyramiding genes for bacterial blight resistance in rice and successfully pyramided the bacterial blight resistance genes viz.,Xa 4, xa 5, xa 13 and Xa 21 and published the results in Theor. Appl. Genetics3: 313-320, 1997.He started his career as Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural Botany, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai (Feb.1995 to May 2001) and then served in the Department of Millets (May 2001 to April2002), Department of Pulses ( April 2002 to May2006) and Department ofRice (May 2006 to April2007), CPBG, TNAU, Coimbatore. From May 2007 to Sep.2011, he worked at the Dept of Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. From Sep. 2011 onwards he was in the Department of Plant Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics, CPMB&B, TNAU, Coimbatore. From May 2018 he served as Head of the Department of Plant molecular Biology and Bioinformatics.

He taught courses for UG, PG and Ph.D., programmes of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics. He has guided five Ph D and twenty-three M.Sc students and published more than sixty research articles. He has received 23 awards and recognitions including the Scientist ofExcellence in Niche Area Award-2019. He has handled five research Projects as Principal Investigator from DBT, DST, UGC and BRNS in rice and sorghum with a total budget of more than Rs. 2 crores. For the past two decades, he contributed as a team member involved in the development of crop varieties: Blackgram -Co(BG)6, Ragi –CO (Ra) 14, Tenai –CO (Te) 7, Samai –CO (Samai) 4, Kudiraivali –CO (KV)2 -Greengram –CO (Gg) 7 , Soybean –CO (Soy) 3, Rice –CO (R) 48, CO (R) 49 and Green Manure Kolingi -MDU (Ko)1. Forage Sorghum variety (CO(FS) 31 was developed from his BRNS project. Three varieties (Cowpea -CO Vu 702, Greengram –CO Gg 912, BlackgramCoBG 653)were nationally released. He served as an expert as Board of Faculty of PG studies, PJTSAU, Hyderabad in 1999,Expert Committee Member on DNA Fingerprinting of NBPGR, New Delhi and Peer Review team of Sastri Indo -Canadian Institute. Served as Vice President, executive council for Indian society of Agricultural Biotechnology (ISAB) established inCPMB&B and served as a Member in the Interview Committee, ASRB.