Biographical note

Professor Anabela Romano is the leader of the Plant Biotechnology Lab since 1995, the year she joined the faculty at the University of Algarve, is the Director of the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Algarve and director of the MED/Ualg - Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development, and was previously Vice-Rector of the University of Algarve. Her current research focuses on the use of biotechnological approaches toward the propagation, conservation, and sustainable use of plant genetic resources and on the biological and chemical characterization of natural compounds. She is actively engaged in training graduate students and postdoctoral fellows (supervised 122 students) and teaches graduate and undergraduate-level courses in Plant Biotechnology, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Natural Product Biotechnology, Medicinal Plants, and Phytotherapy, among others. She is the principal investigator of several research projects and evaluator of national and international research projects and grants. She has published 227 original papers, book chapters, and books, and has been invited to present lectures at specialized national and international congresses and other scientific meetings. She is currently an associate editor of the South African Journal of Botany (Elsevier). Professor P.B.Kavi Kishor joined the Department of Genetics in the year 1981 and initiated the work on Plant Biotechnology. Worked at the Biotechnology Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA (1992-1994) under the Rockefeller Foundation program. Visiting Professor at the Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Visiting Professor at the Linkoping University, Linkoping, Sweden; and a Visiting Scientist at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Gatersleben, Germany. Published 286 papers including book chapters, edited/written seven books. Supervised 51 Ph.D.s as guide/co-guide. He has one patent to his credit. Professor Suprasanna Penna has worked as Head of Nuclear Agriculture and Biotechnology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, and currently is a professor at the Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai. He made significant contributions to plant science covering plant biotechnology, mutation breeding, stress tolerance and novel biopolymer. His work on technology development for radiation depolymerized oligo-chitosan has been successfully used in enhancing plant productivity in crop plants and vegetables. He has also contributed to molecular understanding of plant abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants and salinity-adaptive mechanisms in halophytes. He is on the editorial board of several national and international journals and published over 300 publications and has edited several books on salinity tolerance, genome editing and plant-metal interactions. Professor T. Pullaiah is a former Professor at the Department of Botany at Sri Krishnadevaraya University in Andhra Pradesh, India, where he has taught for more than 35 years. He was President of Indian Botanical Society (2014), President of the Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy (2013). He was awarded the Panchanan Maheshwari Gold Medal, the Prof. P.C.Trivedi Medal, the Dr. G. Panigrahi Memorial Lecture award of the Indian Botanical Society and Prof. Y.D. Tyagi Gold Medal of the Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy. Under his guidance 54 students obtained their doctoral degrees. He has authored 52 books, edited 23 books and published over 330 research papers, including reviews and book chapters. He was also a member of Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Professor Pullaiah received his PhD from Andhra University, India, attended Moscow State University, Russia, and worked as Post-Doctoral Fellow Dr Ranga Rao has carried out Postdoctoral Research work in Arizona State University, Arizona (USA). Dr. Ranga Rao has been working as Associate Professor and Senior Scientist in Department of Biotechnology, Vignan’s Foundation Science, Technology and Research University (Deemed to be University), India. He has 18 years of research experience. Previously Dr. Rang Rao worked as Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Visiting Assistant Dr. Ranga Rao published more than 50 papers in peer reviewed international and national journals, edited several books and has presented over 60 conferences/symposia/seminar in international conferences. and Global Biomass Production. He was selected for Junior Scientist of the Year Award (2015) by National Environmental Science Academy, New Delhi, India; honored TWAS-Young Affiliate (2014) by Regional Office of East South-East Asia and the Pacific Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China; received Young Scientist Award (2014) at the World Food Congress by International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST), Canada; Carl Storm International Diversity Fellowship Award (2010) by Gordon Research Conferences, USA. He is an associate fellow of Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Sciences (2019) Government of Andhra Pradesh, India and also fellow of the Society of Applied Biotechnology (2013), India. He has received research grants and travel grant fellowship as both international and national awards, under Young Scientist schemes. He is also serving as editorial board member and reviewer for reputed international and national journals.