Mycorrhizosphere and Pedogenesis

Prof. Dr. Ajit Varma Dr. Varma completed his M.Sc. (1959) & Ph.D. (1964) degrees at Allahabad University, Allahabad, India. In the course of his professional career, he has also served as a Microbiologist (Assistant Professor), IARI, New Delhi (1963-1971), Senior Microbiologist (Associate Professor), IARI, New Delhi (1971-1974), Associate Professor, JNU, New Delhi (1975-1984), and Professor, JNU, New Delhi (1985-2004). He has been a visiting professor & visiting research scientist at the Technical University, Graz (Austria), University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen (Germany), Friedrich Schiller University, Jena (Germany), Philipps University, Marburg (Germany), Technical University, Munich (Germany), Kingston (Jamaica), Max Planck Visiting Professorship (Germany), Helmholtz Zentrum, Muenchen (Germany), Gutenberg University, Mainz (Germany), CSIC, Madrid (Spain), University of Dundee (Scotland), University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), and ICGEB (Italy). His international awards/fellowships include the Commonwealth Fellowship (Australia), National Research Council (Canada), Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany), National Science Foundation (USA), Indo-Czechoslovakia Exchange Programme (Prague), DAAD Fellowship (Germany), and the Deutsches BMFT Programme, George-August University, Gottingen (Germany), RAISA. He was awarded a fellowship for Innovative Research in Biotechnology (Italy), Swiss Federal Research Fellowship (Switzerland), the BP Koirala award (Nepal) and DFG-INSA Fellowship (Indo- Germany), as well as the FAMI Award-Association of Microbiologists of India and Honorary Diploma, UMF, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Dr. Varma has successfully completed major projects as PI sponsored by DBT, DST, DRDO & ICAR. Besides, he has supervised more than 60 PhD students and published over 300 research articles for national and international journals of repute, as well as several major review articles and chapters in books. He has published 90 books in the area of Microbial Technology, published by Academic Press, London, CRC Press, Florida, USA, IDRC, Canada and Springer-Verlag, Germany.

Dr. Varma has been the series editor for Springer-Verlag’s Series on Soil Biology, and has edited fifty volumes on Soil Biology. He was also nominated as Editor-in-Chief by IK Internationals to make series of books on Microbial and Biotechnological Research. Dr. Varma has been a member of the National Academy of Agriculture Sciences (FNAAS), International Society of Symbiosis, Boston, USA, Indian Science Congress Association, Executive Council, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, University Research Council, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Academic Council, Amity University Rajasthan, ASSOCHAM Knowledge Millennium Council, ASSOCHAM Expert Committee on Agriculture and Food Processing, and ASSOCHAM Expert Committee on S&T and Innovation. He has vast experience in organizing national and international training workshops/symposia and congresses.

Dr. Devendra K. Choudhary Dr. Choudhary has 16 years of research experience in Microbiology & Microbial Biotechnology, Dr. Choudhary shows his presence at Amity Institute of Microbial Technology (AIMT) as Associate Professor. Recently he was associated with PDM and worked as Professor (Ad hoc) for three months. Before joining Amity University he spent several years in Mody University of Science & Technology (MUST), Lakshmangarh, Rajasthan preceded by Barkatullah University, Bhopal as Lecturer cum scientist. He pursued PhD in Microbiology on July 11, 2005 from GB Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar preceded by MSc in Microbiology from MDS University, Ajmer and qualified CSIR-UGC-NET in 2002. He is active researcher and operated major projects with worth amount 10 million sponsored by DBT, DST and SERB, New Delhi, India, as principal investigator and co-investigator. He has involved and contributed in NAAS policy paper number 36 in the year 2006. He has published more than 80 research/review articles along with several book chapters for reputed journals and edited books (Springer, Elsevier and Taylor Francis/Wiley-Blackwell). He has supervised/supervising 11 research scholars for their doctoral programme as supervisor and co-supervisor and wherein 7 have been awarded at MUST and four ongoing at AIMT. In addition, he is recipient of NASI-membership 2016 along with Indian National Science Academy (INSA) visiting and summer research fellowship-2014 and his team received DR. RS Rana Memorial best research award 2013 sponsored by Association of Microbiologists of India. His team submitted bacteria to public domain and incurred two accession numbers from MTCC, IMTECH for submitted bacterial cultures (MTCC, 12057 & 12058) along with one MCC no 2607. Besides, his team submitted appx. 25 functional bacterial genes and 80 I6S rDNA sequences to NCBI with Accession Numbers. In recent times, he has edited 7 books through Springer and filed three patents to India Patent Office, New Delhi.