Dr M. Johnson F.I.F.S., completed his Doctorate in Botany (Plant Tissue Culture) from Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli District, Tamil Nadu, and is working as Assistant Professor of Botany and Director, Centre for Plant Biotechnology, St. Xavier’s College (autonomous), Palayamkottai, Tamil Nadu. He has 21 years of research experience and 18 years of teaching experience. He has published 223 papers in the reputed journals, 27 papers in proceedings and 37 papers as book chapters. He is a recipient of the prestigious SERB Young Scientist – 2013, Prof. S.S. Bir Gold Medal – 2017 and Certificate of Merit 2014 by Indian Fern Society, India.Dr. Helena Fernández is Associate Professor in Plant Physiology at the University of Oviedo, Spain. She received her PhD in Biology in 1993 from Oviedo University, followed by an EU-funded postgraduate research sojourn at the INRA in Orléans, France, training in HPLC-MS techniques. She got the Ramón y Cajal National Excellence Research Program, dealing with reproduction in ferns. Guest researcher at the Institute of Plant Biology, University of Zurich, working on apomixes, through omics techniques. Member of the dean's team, in the Faculty of Biology at the University of Oviedo. She publishes in relevant journals, having edited two books with Springer.Dr Ashwani Kumar Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (Germany), MSc (Botany) (Gold Medalist) (1967)), PhD (1971), post doc AvH Fellow (Germany) and JSPS fellow (Japan) Selected in the Indian Administrative Services (IAS: IPS) (1972) but he opted career in botany. 37 years of teaching & research experience. Guided 39 PhD. research students and published 320 research papers and 26 books. Elected fellow FBS, FPSI, FIMPS and FIFS. Editor in Chief IJLS. V. Puri medal (2008) CEE award (2015). President of CHEC (India), Indian Botanical Society, Society for Promotion of Plant Sciences. Professor Emeritus, Department of University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. Presently, Chair Professor at JVWU, Jaipur and Adj. Professor Modi University, Sikar. Dr. T. Shibila obtained her PhD in Botany from Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli District, Tamil Nadu, and is working as an Assistant Professor at Sri Paramakalyani Centre for Excellence in Environmental Sciences, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Alwarkurichi, Tamil Nadu. She has published more than two book chapters, 20 proceedings, and 25 research papers in the International journals. She has attended 18 national, international conferences and seminars as well as received best paper presentation award in a national conference. She has seven years’ research experience on plant tissue culture and optimized the large-scale propagation protocol for four ferns.
