Biographical note

Javid A Parray is currently teaching at the Department of Environmental Science, GDCEidgah, affiliated with Cluster University, Srinagar. His research interests include ecological and agricultural microbiology, climate change, microbial biotechnology, and environmental microbiomes. He has also done his Post Doctorate Research from the University of Kashmir. Dr Parray was also awarded a Fast Track Young Scientist Project by SERB – DST, GoI New Delhi. Dr Javid was also awarded “Emerging scientist year Gold Medal” for the year 2018 by the Indian Academy of Environmental Science. Dr Parray is the course coordinator for the UG- Programmes for CeC-MOOCS Swayam in Environmental Science. Dr Parray is an expert review member in the field of environmental science in the CSTT, Ministry of Education, GoI New Delhi. Nowsheen Shameem presently works as an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Science Cluster University Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. She worked as project associate in a DBT Sanctioned project entitled “Spawn Production for the Entrepreneurs of Kashmir Valley” at CORD, University of Kashmir. Dr. Shameem has a strong interest in studying mushroom biology, bioactivity, and medicinal chemistry. She has dealt with bioactivities of endemic/threatened medicinal plants of Kashmir valley and other applied microbiology aspects, and has published many research articles in reputed, referred, international and national journals. Dilfuza Egamberdieva is a research associate at the Centre of Agricultural Landscape Research, Germany and head of Joint Uzbek-China Key Lab of Ecobiomes of Arid Lands, National University of Uzbekistan. Her research interests include microbial ecology and diversity, plant-microbe interaction, plant nutrition and stress tolerance, and plant biological disease control. She has been awarded the SCOPUS-2019 Award “Top Scientist of the Year”, TWAS (The World Academy of Science) Award in Agricultural Sciences (2013), and TWAS-TWOWS-SCOPUS Young Women Research Award (2009), as well as several Fellowships such as President’s International Fellowship for Visiting Professors (PIFI), The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and the Georg Forster Research Fellowships, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She is a member of several journals’ editorial board, authored seven books published by Elsevier and Springer, and co-authored over 200 publications in per reviewed journals. Prof. Riyaz Z Sayyed is a Professor at University of Nizwa, Oman. He has over 20 years of teaching and research experience in Microbiology and Biotechnology and 17 years of administrative experience as Head of the Dept. He is Associate Editor of of various journals. He has authored over 350 research papers in high IF international journals and edited 34 books with Springer, Elsevier, Wiley, and CRC Press. Clarivate has listed him as a Top 1% of Highly Cited Researcher (2024) among 6,886 researchers worldwide. He has trained several graduates, postgraduates (over 100), and research students under his guidance. Prof. Sayyed has successfully organized 07 International conferences in the country and abroad and has been an invited speaker at many international conferences in India and many Southeast Asian and European countries. Prof. Sayyed has been the recipient of many prestigious national and international awards.