Dr Naveen Kumar Arora, PhDMicrobiology, Associate Professor in Department of Environmental Microbiology,Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (A Central University), Lucknow, UttarPradesh, India is a renowned researcher in the field of EnvironmentalMicrobiology and Biotechnology. His specific area of research is rhizospherebiology and PGPRs. He has 38 research papers published in premium internationaljournals and several articles published in magazines and dailies. He is editorof the book ‘Plant Microbe Symbiosis: Fundamentals and Advances’, published bySpringer. He is member of several national and international societies andreviewer of several international journals. He has delivered lectures inconferences and seminars around the globe. He has a long standing interest inteaching at the PG level and is involved in taking courses in bacteriology,microbial physiology environmental microbiology, agriculture microbiology andindustrial microbiology. He has been advisor to 57 post graduate and 03doctoral students. Recently he was awarded for excellence in research by the HonorableGovernor of Uttar Pradesh. Although an academician and researcher by professionhe has a huge obsession for the wildlife and its conservation and has authoreda book, Splendid Wilds. He has adedicated website www.naveenarora.co.in for the cause of wildlife andenvironment conservation.Raffaella Balestrini, PhD in Biology and Biotechnologyof Fungi, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection,CNR. Researches mainly focus on different aspects of plant-symbioticfungi interactions (endo and ectomycorrhizae). Researches currently developed,using molecular and cellular approaches including confocal microscope, in situ hybridization and lasermicrodissection (LMD), are: genomics and functional genomics in mycorrhizalfungi; cellular and molecular interactions between plants and mycorrhizalfungi, with particular attention to plant and fungal cell wall modifications; plant-mycorrhizalfungi interactions to improve plant tolerance to abiotic stress; transcriptomeprofiles of specific cell types involved in mycorrhizal symbiosis. Involved inthe black truffle Tubermelanosporum genome project as theperson in charge of the annotation of cell wall-related genes and, thanks tothe experience in gene expression and cell biology studies in mycorrhizalassociations, in post-genomic activities. She has worked with research groupsfrom national and international institutions in joined research projects, asmirrored by the several papers in collaboration. She is referee for severalinternational journals and project proposals. She has 68 publications ininternational journals and 6 book chapters to her credit.Dr SaminaMehnaz, PhD Microbiology, is a Professor and Chairperson of Department of BiologicalSciences, Forman Christian College (A Chartered University),Lahore, Punjab,Pakistan. She is a researcher, in the field of Microbiology. Her specific areaof interest is rhizosphere microbiology, specifically PGPRs and their secondarymetabolites. She has 34 research papers published in international journals andfour book chapters (as a single author) published by Springer. Currently, sheis editor of Archives of Phytopathology and Plant Protection (Taylor &Francis). She is reviewer of several international journals. She is thecontinuous winner of research productivity award since 2010, by PakistanCouncil of Science and Technology. She is Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Fellow(Germany) and National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Fellow(Canada). She has been advisor to 9 post graduate, 3 doctoral students and onepost doctorate fellow.
