Prof. Dinabandhu Sahoo is a full professor at the Department of Botany, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India. He obtained his M. Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from University of Delhi. He has been actively engaged in research and teaching in the field of Algae since 1983. His major research interests include Algal Biofuel and Carbon dioxide capture, Seaweeds Biology, their cultivation and utilization. He was the First Indian student to visit Antarctica during 1987-88 in the 7th Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica and was part of the team which laid the Foundation for “MAITRI” India’s permanent Scientific station in Antarctica. Subsequently he undertook two trips to Arctic during 1991 and 1992. He has visited all the seven continents and five oceans within a record time of 18 months during 1987-89. He was a visiting fellow at Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA; INSA –JSPS visiting fellow at USA Marine Biology laboratory, Japan; visiting fellow at University of Connecticut, Stamford, USA and traveled extensively to many parts of the world. As the Convener, he organized an International Conference on Applied Phycology entitled “Algae in Biotechnology and Environment" in 2006, 7th Asia Pacific Conference on Algal Biotechnology in 2009 and International Algal Summit in 2012 at New Delhi, India. He has been a Member of the Working Group of Asian Network for using Algae as CO2 sink, Council member of Asia –Pacific Society for Applied Phycology and Secretary of Indian Phycological Society. Prof. Sahoo is recipient of several awards including Young Scientist Award.He received the highest award from National Environmental Science Academy, India in 2009 for his outstanding contribution in the field of Marine Science. He has been featured amongst India’s twenty social entrepreneur in the best selling book “I have a Dream” which is now being translated into several Indian Languages He has published a number of research papers and books on algae and related fields. Professor Joseph Seckbach has been the founder and chief editor of Cellular Origins, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology (“COLE”) with ~30 books in that series. He has co-edited other volumes, such as the Proceeding of Endocytobiology VII Conference (Freiburg, Germany) and the Proceedings of Algae and Extreme Environments meeting (Trebon, Czech Republic). See http://www.schweizerbart.de/pubs/books/bo/novahedwig-051012300-desc.ht). His edited the recent volume (with Richard Gordon) entitled Divine Action and Natural Selection: Science, Faith, and Evolution published by World Scientific Publishing Company. He is currently still busy with new books publications and new chapters. Dr. Seckbach earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (1965) and did a post doctorate in the Division of Biology at Caltech, in Pasadena, CA. He headed a group at UCLA studying the life possibilities on Venus, later he was appointed to the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and spent sabbaticals at UCLA and Harvard University. Dr. Seckbach enjoyed his DAAD-sponsored (The German Academic Exchange) periods in Tübingen, Germany, and at LMU, Munich. He served at Louisiana State University (LSU), Baton Rouge, LA, USA, as the first selected Chair for the Louisiana Sea Grant and Technology transfer. Beyond editing academic volumes, he has published ~ 140 scientific articles on plant ferritin–phytoferritin, cellular evolution, acidothermophilic algae, life in extreme environments and on Astrobio-logy. He also edited and translated several popular books. Dr. Seckbach is the co-author, with R. Ikan, of the Hebrew-language Chemistry Lexicon (two editions by Deveer publisher, Tel-Aviv). His recent interest is in the field of enigmatic microorganisms as the life in extreme environments and Astrobiology. He enjoys visiting many Universities and Institutes and presenting there seminars on his studies.
