Prof. Chittaranjan Kole is an internationally reputed scientist with original contributions in the fields of plant genomics and biotechnology. He has published more than 150 research articles in globally leading journals and over 180 books for the leading publishers of the world including Springer Nature, Wiley-Blackwell and Taylor & Francis Group. His academic contributions have been appreciated globally particularly by seven Nobel Laureates. He worked in three universities each in India including Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences and Bidhan Chandra Agricultural University, where he served as its Vice Chancellor. He also worked in three universities in the USA including University of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania State University and Clemson University as Visiting Professor. Presently, he is working as the Chief Advisor of The Neotia University, Kolkata, India and Chairman of the Prof. Chittaranjan Kole Foundation for Science and Society. He is also working as the Founder President of International Climate-Resilient Crop Genomics Consortium, International Phytomedomics and Nutriomics Consortium and Genome India International.Anurag Chaurasia, a biotechnologist working with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Government of India, is a pioneer worker on transgenics/GMOs in the country. He has served as faculty 'Molecular biology and biotechnology' at National Institute for Plant Biotechnology, IARI, PUSA, New Delhi, and has established the International Depository Authority (IDA) recognized National Bureau on Agriculturally Important Microorganisms (NBAIM) at Mau, Uttar Pradesh, India. His opinion articles in the reputed journal Nature have been accepted by the Government of India in formulating the National Policy Documents for the Genetically Modified Crops, National Education Policy 2020 and Scientific Social Responsibilities. He is a series co-editor for the book series “Topics in Biodiversity and Conservation” Springer Nature and has been serving on the board of many reputed journals being published by the Springer Nature, Elsevier, and Oxford University Press.Kathleen Hefferon completed her PhD in virology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. She worked as a postdoctoral research fellow, then a faculty member at Cornell University in the Department of Microbiology. Kathleen’s research interests include food security, global health and agricultural biotechnology. Kathleen is the founder and CTO of Forte Protein, a molecular farming company. She was the Canada Research Chair of Global Food Insecurity in 2018. Kathleen has written multiple scientific manuscripts, book chapters and 5 books. She acts as editor for a number of journals. Kathleen currently teaches microbiology at Cornell University and has a visiting professor position at the University of Toronto.Jogeswar Panigrahi, completed Ph.D. (Molecular Genetics) fromUtkal University and post-doctoral research at Bhaba Atomic Research Centre availing the prestigious K.S. Krishnan Research Associateship. He worked as Reader/ Associate Professor in Biotechnology at Sambalpur University, and Central University of Rajasthan before joining Berhampur University as Professor in Biotechnology. Presently, Prof. Panigrahi leads the Department of Biotechnology and the Centre of Excellence in Bioprospecting of Ethnopharmaceuticals (CoEBESO) as Head of the Department and Coordinator, respectively. He is also member of the executive body and academic committees of several Universities and scientific forums across India. His research interests are Functional genomics exploration of bioactive metabolites of the medicinal plant and Micronutrient biofortification of legumes. Prof. Panigrahi has published more than 50 Research articles in the journal of Reputes, 10 Book chapters and two edited books. He is also reviewer of several indexed journals, and presently he teaches Molecular Biology, Genetics, Plant Biotechnology at Berhampur University.
