Biographical note

Dr. Mohammad Abass Ahanger is currently working as Assistant Professor at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan, China. Dr. Ahanger completed his Postgraduate education in Botany from Jiwaji University, Gwalior, India in 2010 specializing in plant stress physiology and biochemistry. After receiving M Phil, Dr Ahanger completed his Ph D in 2016 from the same university. After working on allelopathic stress for another one year, Dr Ahanger was involved in teaching Plant Physiology and biochemistry to graduate student. Thereafter, he joined Northwest A&F University Yangling, China as post-doctoral fellow and worked on the phytohormone, mineral nutrient and nano material mediated abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants. Later Dr Ahanger joined Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan and worked on rice stress signalling. His main research interests are elucidation of tolerance mechanisms in plants for improved abiotic stress tolerance. He has published research in reputed national and international journals, and has edited books, and contributed book chapters to internationally published volumes. Dr Bhat is an Associate Professor, International Genome Centre, Jiangsu University, China. He also worked as Postdoctoral Fellow at State Key Laboratory for Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, Nanjing Agricultural University (June-2018 to November-2021). Dr. Bhat is recipient of Research Associateship at Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Human Resource Development Group, CSIR Complex, PUSA, New Delhi in 2017 (2016-2018). He is mainly engaged in Plant Genetics, Molecular Breeding, Functional and Applied Genomics, and Computational Biology; In addition, he is engaged in Plant Stress Physiology, Signalling and Genetics particularly for the case of abiotic stresses including heavy metals/metalloids. He has published more than 80 papers in many well reputed SCI Journals serves as editor/Associate editor of journals including Frontiers in Genetics, Environmental Pollution, Functional Plant Biology, Biocell, Biomolecules and Physiologia Plantarum, as well as reviewer of many other SCI journals. Dr. Parvaiz Ahmad is working as Senior Assistant Professor at Department of Botany at Govt Degree College Pulwama, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India and also Visiting Scientist at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He completed his post-graduate degree in Botany in 2000 at Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India. After receiving a Doctorate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, India, he joined the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi, in 2007. His main research area is Stress Physiology and Molecular Biology. He has published more than 100 research papers in peer reviewed journals, and 50 book chapters. He is also an Editor of 30 book volumes published by Studium Press Pvt. India Ltd., New Delhi, India; Springer, New York; Elsevier USA; and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. He is a recipient of the Junior Research Fellowship and Senior Research Fellowship award, granted by CSIR, New Delhi, India. Dr. Ahmad was awarded the Young Scientist Award under the Fast Track scheme in 2007 by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India. Dr. Ahmad is actively engaged in studying the molecular and physio-biochemical responses of different agricultural and horticultural plants under environmental stress. Dr. Riffat John is a PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. She is currently working as senior assistant professor in the Department of Botany, University of Kashmir. She is a dedicated and enthusiastic academician and researcher with 15 years of refined teaching and research experience in plant stress biology and molecular biology. She has also been successful in obtaining various extra mural grants. Dr. Riffat John is also the recipient of an Indo-US Getin Fellowship by IUSSTF. She was awarded Young Scientist Award by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of Jammu and Kashmir in 2015. Dr. Riffat has published 31 papers in International Journals and six book chapters.