Dr. Anil Kumar Sharma has been involved understanding the plant microbe interaction in rhizoshpere and have developed technologies for mass production of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. He has also been interested to know the biotic and abiotic interaction in rhizosphere. He is interested and published extensively to alleviate the biotic and abiotic stresses using microbes. Beside plant microbe interaction, he has also been working in the area of microalgae for biofuel purpose and health promoting ingredients. Research is being conducted for waste management and converting it into alcohol. Pigment producing fungi are also been the interest of our group. In the process he has transferred technologies for mass production of AMF and PGPR to industries and have got 3 patents beside more than 150 publication of repute. He is already published more than 8 books from Springer Verlag being the Series Editor for Rhizosphere Biology Series. He has chaired in many national and international conferences, He worked as Post Doctoral Fellow in NIH funded project in USA. He has been visited Professor in University of Basel, Neuchatel, Switzerland and University of Helsinki, Finland. He has visited several countries and delivered lectures in University of York, England, CSIRO, Adelaide, Australia, Spain, France, Germany, Denmark etc.

Dr Sharma is currently working at ICAR-NIBSM, Raipur in the area of microbial resource conservation and antimicrobial peptides production for biotic stress management in crops. In the recent past, he worked at ICAR-National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Maunath Bhanjan, Uttar Pradesh, India for more than 6 years in the capacity of Officer In-charge/focal point, National Agriculturally Important Microbial Culture Collection [NAIMCC, http://www.wfcc.info/ccinfo/collection/by_id/1060 & International depository authority (IDA) –Budapest Treaty Notification No. 338]. During 1997-2013, he worked at ICAR-Indian Institute of Soybean Research, Indore, India on soybean microbiology for more than 15 years. He delivered talks in International PGPR conference in Medellin, Columbia in June, 2012 and subsequently in Asian PGPR Conference, Tashkent, Uzbekistan in 2019. So far, he had published more than 100 articles (research, review, book chapter, book etc.) in both national and international journals/book/conferences. Recently, his team has developed a simple new method for detection of operation of tryptophan-independent pathway in Microoccus aloeverae DCB-20

Dr. Udai B. Singh, presently working as Scientist (Plant Pathology) at ICAR-NBAIM, Kushmaur, India. His main research areas are: plant pathology, molecular biology, and biotic and abiotic stress management. Dr. Singh has worked on several GoI sponsored projects as Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator and disseminated microbial products/technologies among the farming community. He has developed several microbial bioformulations/technologies for disease management and sustainable crop production. Among them, Bio Pulse, Eco-Pesticide, Green Fungicide, Eco-Green Fungicide, Vardan-1 and Trishool have been validated at KVKs, ICAR-Institutes and farmers fields against seed- and soil-borne diseases of chickpea, lentil, tomato, rice, maize and wheat. He has developed Rapo-composter and standardized the composting techniques using lingo-cellulolytic microbial inoculants for faster decomposition. Apart from this, Dr. Singh has developed comprehensive web-based portal and database which contain information pertaining to microbial culture deposited in NAIMCC, ICAR-NBAIM and provide an interactive platform for easy access of the information on deposited AIMs. Dr. Singh has published 3 books, several research and review articles in the journal of international and national reputes, 20 book chapters, 30 popular articles 6 training manuals, 20 extension folders/leaflets, and 80 abstracts. Dr. Singh is recipient of DST Young Scientist under Fast-Track Scheme, Young Scientist awards, Scientist of the Year Award-2020, Young Achiever award-2020, Best Researcher Award-2020, K.P.V. Menon and Prof. K.S. Bilgrami Best Poster Award and Shri Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Krishi Patrika Puraskar’ of ICAR, New Delhi. Dr. Singh is Fellow of Society for Applied Biotechnology. Dr. Singh has guided 15 M.Sc. and one Ph.D. students. Presently, he is also performing the duties of a curator (Fungi) at NAIMCC, ICAR-NBAIM, Mau.

Dr. S. Krishna Sundari, presently serving as Professor in the Biotechnology Department of JIIT, NOIDA. She has 20 years of Academics & Research experience, working at places of National & International repute such as Teri (The Energy and Resources institute), New Delhi; Institute Nationale Recherche Agronomie (INRA), Champenoux, France; and brief work assignments at ENSAIA, France; Universitae Henrie Poincare, France, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA. Educational institutes where worked earlier include Institute of Applied Medicines and Research (IAMR), Ghaziabad, Institute of Home Economics (IHE), New Delhi, Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi and Teri – SAS, New Delhi. Krishna Sundari has earned Masters in Life Sciences (specialization in Plant sciences) from Hyderabad Central University (HCU), Hyderabad. Having qualified CSIR-NET, she started her research career with Teri (The Energy and Resources Institute, Lodi Road, New Delhi) and obtained Doctorate in Microbiology from Barkatullah University, Bhopal. She has done her Post-Doctoral research at the Europe’s top agricultural research institute and the world’s number two centre for the agricultural sciences namely INRA situated in Chapenoux, France. She harbors research Interest in the area of Microbial Biotechnology with applications for Agriculture, Environment & Industry. She has successfully taken up projects worth more than 2 crores funded by DBT, Govt. of India. She has published nearly 25 papers in international refereed journals and has more than 50 papers in different International & National conferences and book chapters. Prof. Krishna holds membership in international scientific societies such as: International Mycorrhiza Society (CMR, Teri, New Delhi), American Society of Microbiology (ASM, Washington DC), Association of Microbiologists of India (AMI), and presently serving as Exec. Vice President for Asian PGPR Society, Auburn, USA.

Prof. Saraf is currently, Director, University School of Sciences, Head of Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India. She is Coordinator of Clinical Research Programs ongoing at GU. Her research interest includes restoration of marginal and degradation of landforms using microbes and the influence of biotic and abiotic stress conditions on plant microbial interactions. Her research is biocontrol and induced systemic resistance, zinc and selenium biofortification in wheat, biofuel production by algae and jatropha, role of endophytes and rhizosphere microflora in medicinal and horticultural crops. Recently, her group has diversified in phytohormones, Exo polysaccharides and role of bioinformatics in PGPR. Published more than 80 papers in reputed International, National Journals and Books. Citations -1630 and i-10 is 34. Prof. Saraf is a Mentor and Guide to Ph.D. (13 Doctorate Awardees, 8 active Doctoral students) and PDF scholars (three actives). She is a Chief Editor of Vidya, Journal of Gujarat University. Chairperson of Board of Studies in Microbiology and Biotechnology, Gujarat University and invited expert at many Board of studies of subject. Obtained funding more than 2 crore Indian Rupees from UGC,DST, DBT, GUJCOST and industry such as British Petroleum International of London for her projects over the years. About, 50 sequences of agriculturally important bacteria were submitted to gene bank. Coordinator of many conferences and workshops. Recipient of Indo-US Professorship Award by the American Society for Microbiology, ISCA Young Scientist Award in 1991, Fellowship of Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute in 2018, Platinum Jubilee Award at 106the Indian Science Congress (Plant Science) held in 2019. Fellow of Indian Botanical Society (FIBS), International Society of Biotechnology (FISBT) and Life Member of many scientific associations includes Asian PGPR Society for Sustainable Agriculture.

Puneet Singh Chauhan working as Principal Scientist in Microbial Technologies lab at CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow (U.P.) INDIA in the area of plant microbe interactions, stress biology, microbial ecology and soil metagenomics. He has completed his Doctorate degree in Biochemistry from CSIR NBRI and Jiwaji University, Gwalior in 2009 and then after he has worked as Postdoctoral Research fellow under Brain Korea 21 National Fellowship at Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, South Korea during 2009-2011. He has published 97 SCI papers and 25 Review/Book chapters. He has been awarded Innovative Young Scientist Award from Asian PGPR society for sustainable agriculture, Hyderabad, India for contributions in the field of Agricultural Microbiology in 2014. He has been associated in the Editorial board of Frontier in Plant Sciences and Plos One and reviewer of several prestigious journals publishing in the area of Microbiology and Plant Sciences.