Microbial Essentialism: An Industrial Prospective

Dr. Raghvendra Pratap Singh is an eminent scientist in the Microbial Biotechnology. He has received his PhD from Gurukul Kangri University, India and is presently working in Research and Development Division, Uttaranchal University, Dehradun. Since 2014-2016, He worked as Research Scientist in Shandong University. His research contributions relate to the area of ecology of myxobacteria, plant-microbes interaction and microbial genomics. He is member of Aquatic Biodiversity Society and has a certification from Food and Drug association of India. He has received several awards and grants from various scientific agencies and societies such as Young Scientist award by ABA-2017, SERB-DST grant, Chinese Postdoctoral Grant, DBT travel grant etc. He has participated as Speaker in several National and International scientific meets and conferences such as FEMS-2013 in Stresa, Italy, Myxo-2016 in Switzerland, AMI, PTPB-2014 etc.

Dr. Geetanjali Manchanda is working as Head of the Botany Department in DAV University, Jalandhar, India. She received MSc degree from Delhi University and PhD from Panjab University, Chandigarh. She has extensively worked on plant microbe interactions in stressed and contaminated environments with special focus on mycorrhizae for the fortification of various crops. She has received the prestigious research grants from DST, India, and IFS Sweden. She has contributed immensely to the scientific community by publishing research papers and book chapters. She had recently authored three books in which one book is on the use of omics technology for microbiology that has been published by ICAR, New Delhi, India.

Dr. Sreedevi Sarsan completed her PhD in 2012 from Osmania University and is working as Head, Department of Microbiology and IQAC Coordinator of St. Pious X Degree & PG College for Women, Hyderabad. She has 18 years of teaching and research experience in Environmental microbiology, Soil microbiology, Food microbiology, Industrial Microbiology, agricultural microbiology, and other fields of applied microbiology. She has completed UGC funded project and guided many UG and PG student projects. To her credit, she has published a book and contributed a number of book chapters. She has organized conferences and chaired many academic and technical sessions at various national and International conferences/seminars /workshops. She has been awarded with Best Woman Faculty (by Novel Research Academy in 2020); IMRF Excellence Award (by International Multidisciplinary Research Foundation 2019); Best Citizen Gold Medal Award (by GEPRA in 2019); Best Scientist Award (by IMRF in 2016); Young Scientist Award (in 2012).

Dr. Ajay Kumar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial Microbiology, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, UP, India. Previously, he worked as Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology, Lovely Professional University, Punjab, India. He did his postdoctoral fellowship in molecular microbiology from North-West University- Mafikeng campus, South Africa. He is an active member of scientific society “Association of Microbiologist of India. He has published more than 50 research articles including review papers/book chapters in the leading international journals/publishers. He also has a patent for the formulation of liquid biofertilizer with increased shelf life for sustainable agriculture. He has wide area of research experience, especially in the field of Plant-Microbe Interactions, and antibiotic resistance in food borne pathogens.

Professor Hovik Panosyan graduated in Biology from Yerevan State University (YSU) in 1999. He received his PhD in microbiology from Institute of Botany of NAS of Armenia in 2003. He has been a faculty member at YSU since 2002 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2011. His main research area is Microbial Ecology and Biology of Extremophilic Microbes. He has been awarded numerous research fellowships and awards including FEBS Short-Term Fellowship (2009 and 2004), FEMS Research Fellowship (2009), NFSAT (2011) DAAD (2013) and has participated in international research together with USA, European and Asian partners. Dr. Panosyan is actively engaged in studying of microbial community of extreme environments (terrestrial geothermal springs, alkali-saline soils, subterranean salt deposits, copper and molybdenum mines distributed on the territory of Armenia) based on culture-dependent and molecular techniques. He has published more than 60 research papers in peer-reviewed journals, 4 books and 25 chapters.