Biographical note

Prof Amritesh Chandra SHUKLA is Professor of Botany at University of Lucknow, India. His research has mainly focused on exploration and conservation of fungal diversity and its bioprospection as well as unraveling the mechanism of action of potential antifungal plant products/ biomolecules as pharmaceuticals and herbal drugs. He has developed some commercial antifungal formulations and granted USA, UK, Japanese and Indian patents. He has credited eleven books and published his research findings in various internationally reputed journals including seminars in cancer biology. For his scientific accomplishments, he received numerous awards and recognition, including the prestigious Fellow of the Linnean Society of London in the year 2021. He has also served the international scientific community well as Visiting Professor- University of Mauritius, and University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Prof James is a Principal Investigator and Co-Director of the Circular Bioeconomy Research Group at Shannon Applied Biotechnology Centre at Munster Technology University, and Academic Collaborator at the SFI BiOrbic Bioeconomy Research Centre. James has been coordinator, lead PI and Co-PI on several EU and nationally funded circular bioeconomy research projects. Nationally, James is coordinator of the Biorefinery Glas and INFORMBIO DAFM-funded research initiatives and is a member of the SFI Farm Zero C research team. At EU-level James was scientific coordinator Biobased Industries (BBI JU) ICT-BIOCHAIN initiative and is PI and Co-PI on several current BBI JU and H2020 projects including BIOSWITCH, COOPID, agroBridges and BIO4AFRICA. James is part of the core programme development team and lecturer on the Postgrad degree programme Bioeconomy with Business. Vijay Kumar Thakur is currently a Professor in the Biorefining and Advanced Materials Research Centre at SRUC, Edinburgh, U.K. He holds an Adjunct Professor position in the Research School of Polymeric Materials, Jiangsu University, China and is a Visiting Professor at Shiv Nadar University, India, and Visitor at Cranfield University, U.K. He has previously held faculty positions at Cranfield University, U.K., Washington State University, U.S.A., and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His research activities span the disciplines of Biorefining, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Manufacturing, Materials Science, and Nanotechnology, as well as all aspects of Sustainable and Advanced Materials. He has published over 200 SCI journal articles, 2 patents, 50 books, and 37 book chapters in areas concerning polymers, nanotechnology, and materials science. He sits on the editorial board of several SCI journals (e.g., Nature Scientific Reports, Journal of Renewable Materials, Advances in Polymer Technology, International Journal of Polymer Analysis and Characterization, Polymers for Advanced Technologies, Biomolecules, Nanomaterials, Surfaces and Interfaces, Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy, Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry, and Nano-Structures & Nano-Objects) as an Editor or Editorial Advisory Board member. Dr. Manikant Tripathi is Assistant Professor in the Biotechnology Program at Dr. Rammanohar Lohia Avadh University, Ayodhya, India with eight years of teaching experience. After passing M.Sc. and qualifying National Eligibility Test, he completed Ph.D. program in Microbiology. He received research fellowship by University Grants Commission, India, and awards by various scientific societies in international and national conferences. His primary research interest is to explore different efficient strategies toward bioremediation of environmental pollutants and microbial applications for value added product development. Dr. Tripathi has published more than 50 research and review articles in peer-reviewed journals with h-index: 15 and has edited three books. He is an active member of various scientific societies. Presently, he is working on development of cleanup technology for in situ bioremediation of industrial effluent, biomass valorisation, and green synthesis of nanoparticles along with its antimicrobial applications. Prof. Dr. Vijai Kumar Gupta is working as an Associate Professor and Bioprocess Engineering Lead at the School of Biotechnology at Dublin City University, Ireland. The overall focus of his research is on developing bioprocess technologies to valorise available bioresources (including dairy waste-streams) to produce value-added bioproducts and fuels. He has several articles, book chapters, and books with an author H-index of 81. Also, he is the editor of several reputed journals, including Biotechnology Advances, Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, Environmental Chemistry Letters, Microbial Cell Factories, Microbiome, Mycosphere. He is listed among the world’s top 2% of scientists by Stanford University-USA