Professor Mahender Rai is UGC- Basic Science Research Faculty Fellow and former head of the Department of Biotechnology, Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University, Amravati, Maharashtra, India. Presently, he is a visiting Scientist at the Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Piaui, Teresina, Brazil. Professor Rai has published more than 450 research papers in Indian and foreign peer-reviewed journals, 70 books and more than 102 articles. He is a member of several scientific societies. His area of expertise includes microbial biotechnology and nanobiotechnology. Currently, the main research interest of his group is the green synthesis of metal nanoparticles particularly using fungi and their applications as nano antimicrobials against pathogenic microbes. He has received several prestigious awards, including the Father T.A. Mathias award (1989) from the All-India Association for Christian Higher Education, and the Medini award by the Government of India. In 2015 (October-November) he was a visiting scientist at Nanotechnology Center, VSB Technological University of Ostrava. He was awarded NAWA fellowship by Polish Government from 2021-2023. Recently, he has been Featured in Stanford's list of the top 2% of scientists in Nanoscience and nanotechnologyProfessor Chistiane M. Feitosa is a professor of chemistry at Federal University of Piaui (UFPI), Teresina, Brazil. She participates in the master's and doctorate programs at the UFPI Teresina campus: Pharmaceutical Sciences with emphasis on Production and quality control of medicines and Master and Doctorate in Chemistry in the area of Natural Products Chemistry. With rich experience in chemistry of natural products, Professor Feitosa’s main areas of interest are bioactive metabolites from plants, enzyme acetylcholinesterase, and antioxidants in the context of Alzheimer's disease. She received CNPq Technological Productivity Scholarship in 2015-2018. Moreover, she has supervised more than 30 students in the master's and doctoral programs in chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences programs at UFPI. Professor Feitosa is well known for her research on the application of natural products in neurodegenerative diseases. Her present research is focused on the role of Curcuma and curcumin in neurodegenerative diseases. She has published more than 70 research papers, several book chapters, and 10 books from different reputed publications.
