Dr. Zulfiqar Ali is a Professor at Department of Plan Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-Pakistan. Prof. Ali completed his PhD from the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan, and postdoctoral studies from Plant Breeding Institute at University of Sydney (2007–2008) and Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences Nanjing (2009–2011). He has published more than 80 books/chapters/research papers in highly popular journals like Plant Breeding, Nature’s Scientific Report, Rice, Field Crop Research, PLOS One, and has been serving as the section editor of Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences. Prof. Ali has successfully completed various research projects. Currently, he is running six research projects funded by national and international funding agencies including HEC, PARB, ADP, USAID, DFID, ACIAR, etc. He has been granted awards, including the Gold Medal 2017 in Biotechnology from the Pakistan Academy of Sciences. Dr. Ali has also been awarded with the “National Level HEC Best Teacher Award 2021” by Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan. For over the past 21 years, Prof. Ali has been engaged in the fields of plant biotechnology, breeding, genetics, and molecular biology. His research focuses on climate-smart breeding using functional genomics tools.Dr Muhammad Tehseen Azhar is working as Associate Professor at the Department of Plan Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-Pakistan, his primary responsibility is teaching to graduate and post-graduate classes. Besides, his focus is screening and development of segregating population resulting in the development of several bulks of cotton with more yield and fibre traits. Dr Azhar has specific interest in the development of cotton germplasm having tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. These advanced strains of cotton has showed good performance for yield of cotton in national traits and those genotypes are suitable for cultivation in high temperature and water stress conditions. Being a Borlaug Alumnus, he worked with various cotton geneticists namely, Dr Richard Percy, Dr Lori L. Hinze and Dr Jame Frelichowsk at Texas A&M University and USDA-ARS, USA. Dr Azhar has completed various research projects funded by Higher Education Commission, Pakistan; CAS-PARB and Cooperation Organization Partnership for Science and Technology, China. Besides, Dr Azhar is Endeavour Alumnus and appointed as Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Plant Biology, UWA. Recently he is appointed as Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Agriculture Sciences, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China. Due to his consistency Dr Azhar is appointed as a Chair of Germplam and Genetic Stock in International Cotton Genome Initiative (ICGI).Dr Muhammad Azam Khan is working as Assistant Professor at the Department of Plan Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-Pakistan. He is primarily engaged in teaching and supervision of undergraduate and postgraduate students. He studied genetics and genomics of host plant resistance to fungal diseases in his PhD. He has experience working with genetics of abiotic stress tolerance in wheat and brassica, exploiting genetic potential of vegetables under waste wastewater and selection of bio-energy feedstocks. This hands-on experience explains why he is interested in developing climate ready crops. More specifically he is interested in developing brassica types with higher yield while maintaining/improving quality in the face of changing climate. Being a graduate from The University of Western Australia, he is ambitious to explore new avenues in research
