Biographical note

Dr. Ajay Kumar is currently working as an assistant professor at Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, India. Dr. Kumar recently completed his tenure as a visiting scientist from Agriculture Research Organization, Volcani Center, Israel. He has published more than 175 research, review articles, and book chapters in international and national journals. He serves as an associate editor for Frontiers in Microbiology and as guest editor for various journals such as Plants, Microorganisms, and Sustainability. Dr. Kumar has also edited more than 32 books with the leading publishers such as Elsevier, Springer, and Wiley. Dr. Kumar has wide area of research experience, especially in the field of plant-microbe Interactions, microbial biocontrol, Postharvest management of fruits, microbial endophytes related to medicinal plants and cyanobacteria-pesticides interactions. Prof. Dr. Gerardo Puopolo, currently working as an Associate Professor at Center Agriculture Food Environment (C3A) which current research focuses on the molecular characterization (ecology, genomics and transcriptomics). Dr. Puopolo, before joining C3A, worked as researcher at Fondazione Edmund Mach (FEM) and Post-doc at the University “Federico II” (Italy), was visiting scholar at the University of Arizona (USA) and visiting scientist at the University of Liège (Belgium). He is experienced in biological control of plant pathogens, microbial ecology and molecular microbiology. He edited a book (www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/book/10.1079/9781789249200.0000), authored three book chapters, 56 publications (Scopus) and is inventor in one patent. He is now serving as Editor in Chief of Microbiological Research (Elsevier). He has supervised eighteen undergraduate students, six PhD students and two Postdocs. He is now supervising four PhD students. During his career, he coordinated one MSCA-IF (Rhizotalk), participated in one project funded by the Autonomous Province of Trento (EnviroChange), one by the Italian Ministry of Research (MIND), and four projects funded by EU (Cofree, INNOVA, INTERFUTURE, RELACS). Sergio de los Santos Villalobos is a Research Professor at the Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora, Mexico. He is also the Founder and Director of the Laboratorio de Biotecnología del Recurso Microbiano and the Colección de Microorganismos Edáficos y Endófitos Nativos. He has authored more than 100 scientific and review articles in indexed journals, 4 books, and 20 book chapters. He also has two registered patents in biotechnology on the bioprospecting and bioformulation of microbial inoculants and one software patent on the employ of isotopic techniques for assessing soil erosion. Dr. de los Santos Villalobos has served as president of international scientific congresses, participated in the organization and teaching of national or international workshops, has been a plenary speaker for national or international congresses or symposia, and is also a member of the expert panel of global organizations focused on the development of microbial inoculants and soil conservation. He is currently Associate Editor in several high-impact indexed journals. Manoj Kumar Solanki is currently employed as a scientist in the Institute of Biology, Biotechnology, and Environment Protection of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. In 2006, he received his master’s degree in microbiology from Barkatullah University, and in 2013, he received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from Rani Durgawati University in India. He also served as a research associate in a DBTfunded project at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India. He received a visiting scientist fellowship from the Guangxi Academy of Agriculture Sciences in China from 2013 to 2015, as well as a visiting scientist fellowship from the Volcani Center, Agricultural Research Organization in Israel from 2016 to 2020. He has been involved in numerous research activities on plants-microbes interaction, soil microbiology, plant disease management, enzymology, and microbial genome analysis during his research career, and has published a number of publications in prestigious peer-reviewed international journals and books. He is also expanding his knowledge of agriculturally significant microorganisms, with a focus on soil and crop health management, among other things as well as worked as associate/guest editor for various journals and has sound expertise in editing books and reviewing articles.