Biographical note

Kamel Abd-Elsalam, Ph.D. is a head researcher at Plant Pathology Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt. Dr. Kamel’s research interests include developing, improving and deploying plant biosecurity diagnostic tools; understanding and exploiting fungal pathogen genomes; and developing eco-friendly hybrid nanomaterials for controlling toxicogenic fungi and plant diseases. He has edited or authored books and published 8 book chapters, 6 review articles, a translated book and more than 120 research articles in international peer reviewed journals including Fungal Diversity, Fungal Biology, FEMS Review Microbiology, PLOS One and PLOS Genetics. He is associate editor for Mycosphere, and review editor for Frontiers in Genomic Assay Technology and referees for journals, including the Plant Pathology, Journal of Phytopathology, Crop Protection, IET Nanotechnology, Fungal Diversity, BMC Genomic and, Foodborne Pathogens and Diseases. Dr. Kamel has also served as molecular mycologist for 5 years in the Department Botany and Microbiology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. He received the Federation of Arab Scientific Research Councils Prize for distinguished scientific research in biotechnology (fungal genomics) during 2014 (first ranking). Dr. Kamel pursued his Ph.D. in Molecular Plant Pathology from Christian Alberchts University of Kiel (Germany) and Suez Canal University (Egypt). He did a postdoctoral fellowship from Christian Alberchts University of Kiel in 2008. Dr. Kamel served as visiting associate professor in Institute of Excellence in Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University, Thailand; Institute of Microbiology, TUM, Germany, Laboratory of Phytopathology, Wageningen University, The Netherlands; and Plant Protection Department, Sassari University, Italy. 

Ram Prasad, Ph.D. is assistant professor at the Amity Institute of Microbial Technology, Amity University, Uttar Pradesh,India. His research interests includes plant-microbe interactions, sustainable agriculture, and microbial nanobiotechnology. Dr. Prasad has more than a hundred publications to his credit, including research papers and book chapters. He has filed patents issued or pending and has edited or authored several books. Dr. Prasad has 11 years of teaching experience. He has been awarded the Young Scientist Award (2007) and Prof. J. S. Datta Munshi Gold Medal (2009) by the International Society for Ecological Communications, the FSAB fellowship (2010) by the Society for Applied Biotechnology, the Outstanding Scientist Award (2015) in the field of microbiology by Venus International Foundation, and the American Cancer Society UICC International Fellowship for Beginning Investigators (USA, 2014). In 2014–2015, Dr. Prasad served as visiting assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, USA.