Adel El-Beltagy (Edited By) Currently Chair of the Int'l Dryland Dev. Commission (IDDC), Prof., Arid Land Agric. Graduate Studies & Res. Institute (ALARI), Ain Shams Univ., Egypt, Chair, Food & Agric. Res. Council, Egyptian Academy of Sci. &Technology, Member, Advisory Board, Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Board member, Regional Action for Climate Change (RACC), Sci.& Tech. in Society forum (STS), Kyoto, Japan Served as President, Governing Board, Int'l Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM) (2010-2015), Minister of Agriculture & Land Reclamation (2014-2015), Board Member, Bibliotheca Alexandrina (2006-2012), Chair, BA Executive Board (2015-2018). Council member, Consultative Group on Int'l Agric. Res. (CGIAR) (2006- 2011), Chair, Global Forum on Agric. Res. (GFAR) (2006-2010), Member, FAO High-Level Committee addressing the implementation of the UN millennium dev. goals (MDGs) (2006-2011), Board Member, UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board (2004-2005), Chair, Global Consortium to Re-build Agric. in Afghanistan (2002-2006), Chairman, CGIAR Consortium for Sustainable Agric. Dev. in Central Asia&the Caucasus (CAC) (1996-2006), DG, Int'l Center for Agric. Res. in Dry Areas (ICARDA) (1995-2006), Member, CGIAR Genetic Resources Policy Committee (1994-1999), Chairman, Sci/Tech. Council of the Int'l Sahara&Sahel Observatory (SSO) (1993-2002), Awards include·The Golden Medal of the Int'l Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM); Commander of the Order of Agric. Merit, in recognition to his efforts in the Int'l Agric. Dev., particularly in the Mediterranean countries, Government of France.; The Sultan Qaboos 'First Class' Order for Culture, Sciences and Arts, Oman; Al-Istiklal Medal by His Majesty King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein of Jordan; Fellow of the University of Wales.Rattan Lal (Edited By) Rattan Lal ,Ph.D., is a Distinguished University Professor and Director of CFAES Rattan Lal Center for Carbon Management and Sequestration, the Ohio State University (1987-to date), was soil Physicist (1969-1987) at IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria, and a senior research Fellow (1968-1969) at the University of Sydney, Australia. His research interests are soil carbon sequestration, soil physical properties and processes, soil health, conservation agriculture, soil restoration and sustainable management of soils, and food and nutritional security. He has authored, co-authored ~1200 journal articles, 590 book chapters, and written/edited 110 books. He has mentored about 425 scholars from around the world. He was President of the World Association of Soil and Water Conservation (1987-1990), International Soil & Tillage Research Organization (1987-1989), Soil Science Society of America (2006-2008), and the International Union of Soil Sciences (2017-2018). Prof. Lal is a member of 7 global professional academies, and has received 9 honorary degrees from universities in USA, Europe, India and South America. He holds a Chair in Soil Science and Goodwill Ambassador for Sustainability Issues for IICA, Costa Rica. He was a member of the 2021-UNFSS Science Committee and Action Track 3 with focus on "Coalition 4 Action on Soil Health". He is a member of the U.N. Food System Coordination Hub, Prof. Lal is laureate of the 2018 World Soil Prize, 2019 Japan Prize, 2020 World Food Prize, 2020 Arrell Innovation Prize, 2021 Padma Shri Award from the President of India,2024 Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity. Soil and Agronomy department of Punjab Agricultural University ,Ludhiana was named Dr .Rattan Lal Laboratories in 2020, and Lal Carbon and Soil Health Laboratory was inaugurated at the National University of Uzbekistan ,Tashkent in 2025.Kauser Abdulla Malik (Edited By) Dr Kauser Abdulla Malik is a Distinguished National Professor of Biotechnology and is currently leading Agricultural Biotechnology programs at KAM School of Life Sciences at Forman Christian College (A Chartered University), Lahore since 2008. Earlier Dr Malik has been Chairman of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (1998-2001); Member Biosciences, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (2001-2006) and then Member (Food Agri) Planning Commission, Islamabad (2006-2008). Before his stint in Islamabad, Dr Malik was Head of Soil Biology Division of Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology (NIAB) from 1971-1992. His earlier research was on Biology of Saline Soils and biodynamics of organic matter formation. These led to the development of Biosaline Agriculture technology which was later picked up by FAO/IAEA Joint Divion and implemented in several countries of Middle East. Dr Malik was pioneer in reporting associative nitrogen fixation associated with roots of non-legumes. Such studies led to the development of commercial biofertilizers for cereal crops. Subsequently Dr Malik developed interest in plant biotechnology and was thus founding Director of National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE) at Faisalabad (1992-1998). His interest in plant biotechnology related to biofortification and transgenic wheat for salt tolerance, drought tolerance, and increased fertilizer use efficiency. Dr Malik has been Member of the Standing Advisory Group for Nuclear Applications (SAGNA) of IAEA for 9 years; Member Board of Trustees of International Foundation of Science (IFS), Stockholm; Member BoG of International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Vienna. Dr Malik has over 250 research articles published in peer reviewed journals and has edited 5 books. Dr Malik was awarded three civil awards by the President of Pakistan for his services to science. Dr. Malik is Fellow of Pakistan Academy of Sciences (PAS) and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS).
