Dr. Kubilay Kurtulus Bastas, currently a full professor of plant pathology at Selcuk University, Turkey. Dr. Bastas, is a plant protection graduate from Faculty of Agriculture, Ankara University. He earned his doctoral degrees in plant pathology-bacteriology from Selcuk Universities and earned a postdoctoral degree in molecular phytopathology from Warwick University, UK. During his 26 years as a faculty member, Dr. Bastas has received several awards and fellowships from national (TUBITAK, TMMOB, and YOK) and international (British Council and ERASMUS) foundations. Dr. Ajay Kumar is a microbiologist, and his research area includes microbiome, postharvest management, microbial biocontrol, plant-microbe Interactions, Cyanobacteria research and endophytes. Dr. Kumar completed his doctoral research from Department of Botany, , Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India and Postdoc from Agriculture Research Organization, Volcani Center, Rishon Leziyon, Israel. Prof. Sivakumar Uthandi is Professor of Agricultural Microbiology in Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore, India received doctorate degrees from TNAU and gained Post-Doctoral experience at University of Florida, USA. He has been visiting Associate Professor at the University of Florida, USA; and also visited Wageningen University, The Netherlands; BIC, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, and the University of Warwick, UK; AVRDC, Taiwan; and University of Jafna, Srilanka. He is now serving as Visiting Adjunct Professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan.
