Biographical note

Devarajan Thangadurai is senior assistant professor at Karnatak University in South India. He is also president of the Society for Applied Biotechnology; general secretary of the Association for the Advancement of Biodiversity Science; and journal editor-in-chief of several journals: Biotechnology, Bioinformatics and Bioengineering; Acta Biologica Indica; Biodiversity Research International; and Asian Journal of Microbiology. He received his PhD in botany from Sri Krishnadevaraya University in South India (2003). During 2002-2004, he worked as CSIR Senior Research Fellow with funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. He served as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Madeira (Portugal), University of Delhi (India), and ICAR National Research Centre for Banana (India) from 2004 to 2006. He is the recipient of Best Young Scientist Award with Gold Medal from Acharya Nagarjuna University (2003) and the VGST-SMYSR Young Scientist Award of Government of Karnataka, Republic of India (2011). He has edited or authored 15 books, including Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (3 vols.), Genes, Genomes and Genomics (2 vols.) and Mycorrhizal Biotechnology, with publishers of national and international reputation.

Jeyabalan Sangeetha earned his BSc in microbiology (2001) and PhD in environmental sciences (2010) from Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. She also holds an MSc in environmental sciences (2003) from Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. Between 2004 and 2008, she was the recipient of Tamil Nadu Government Scholarship and the Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship of University Grants Commission, Government of India for her doctoral studies. She has published approximately 20 manuscripts detailing the effect of pollutants on the environment, and she has organized conferences, seminars, workshops, and lectures. Her main research interests are in the areas of environmental microbiology and environmental biotechnology, with particular emphasis on solid waste management, environmental impact assessment and microbial degradation of hydrocarbons. Her scientific and community leadership have included serving as an editor of the Journal of Biodiversity Research International, and acting secretary of the Society for Applied Biotechnology. Presently, she is the UGC Kothari Postdoctoral Fellow at Karnatak University in South India.