Biographical note

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. P.B. Raghavendra is currently affiliated with School of Regenerative Medicine, Manipal University, Bangalore, India, and has served as Director of School of Chemical and Biological Sciences, REVA University. He is the author of Book Advances in Cell and Molecular Diagnostics and a number of articles and book chapters on various aspects of medical sciences and life sciences published in International journals. He is a visiting professor and technology consultant for many universities and biotechnology companies. Dr. S. Karuppusamy is currently affiliated with the Department of Botany, The Madura college, Madurai, India. He was Post Doctoral Fellow at Sri Krishnadevaraya University. He has published 10 books and 120 research papers. He was awarded Prof. Y.S.Murthy Gold Medal from Indian Botanical Society. Dr. V. Raveendran is working as Associate Scientist, Cardiovascular Research Program, King Faisal Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He was a Post-Doctoral fellow at Department of Internal Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas, USA. Dr. M. Anuradha is currently affiliated to Padmashree Institute of Management and Sciences, Bangalore, India. She was scientist at Dr. Reddy’s research foundation, Hyderabad, India and Sami Labs Pvt. Ltd. Bangalore, India. She published one book and more than 30 papers in national and international journals and co- author for book chapters. She also filed 6 Indian patents and has one US patent granted. She successfully completed four research projects on camptothecin yielding plants supported by Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi and National Medicinal Plants Board, New Delhi and consultant to private herbal companies dealing with camptothecin.