Dr. Basanta Kumar Das is the Director at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CIFRI), Barrackpore, Kolkata 700120, India. He received PhD from Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology in 1998 and two post-doctorates in 2007-07 and 2010 from FRS Marine Lab, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, and Bourns College of Engineering, University of California, USA. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated the capacity to quickly acquire new skills, adapt to new surroundings, and work with various colleagues and stakeholders. He has demonstrated leadership capacity by managing research projects as a scientist, principal scientist, and institute director. His strong ability to adapt to new environments and research teams and interact with people of different personalities, cultures, and languages as a collaborator or leader will be a great advantage for further strengthening the research network and reaching a position of professional maturity. During his 30 years of research work, he has gained experience in biomolecular characterization through Proteomic (LCMS, modelling, and biomolecular structure) and bioinformatics techniques (functional relationships of biomolecules), the OMICS approach (metagenomics, Transcriptomic, and whole genome sequencing), biosensor-based diagnostic tools, monoclonal antibody and hybridoma techniques, Cellular biology, immunohistochemistry, and electron microscopy. He has published over 450 research papers in peer-reviewed journals, 40 book chapters, and over 50 popular articles. He has 8 patents, 13 copyrights, 7 trademarks, and 4 designs. For their work, he has been awarded the Best Scientist, Best Speaker, Lal Bahadur Shastri Young Scientist Award, International Achievement, DBT Overseas Associateship, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award for Outstanding Research in Agricultural Sciences, Lifetime Achievement Award, etc. Dr. Vikash Kumar completed his bachelor's in fisheries science (B.F.Sc.) degree at the College of Fisheries, Central Agricultural University, India. He obtained his master's in fisheries science (M.F.Sc.) degree in Fish health specialization from ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Education (ICAR-CIFE), India. Later, he moved to Belgium and completed his PhD at the Laboratory of Aquaculture & Artemia Reference Center (ARC), Ghent University, Belgium, in 2019. During his study period, he received Government of India funding, based on his performance in class, to pursue bachelor's, master's and PhD programs. He has published more than 50 research papers in peer-reviewed journals and presented the scientific outputs of his research at international congresses. He received two patents (Method for producing synergistic microbial composition to promote fish health and disease protection; Means to detect whether acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease-causing Vibrio parahaemolyticus is virulent or non-virulent). Currently, he works as a senior scientist at a research institute (ICAR, Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Kolkata, India). As project coordinator, he is working on these projects, viz., National Surveillance Program for Aquatic Animal Disease; Metagenomic profiling of floodplain wetlands for ecosystem health monitoring; Fish health management in inland open waters and Microbiome meta-transcriptomics assessment of Indian river basins for ecosystem health monitoring. He has supervised 8 master's and 1 PhD students. He served as an associate editor and member of the editorial board for several reputed journals.
