Dilfuza Egamberdieva is a Research Associate at the Leibniz Centre of Agricultural Landscape Research, Germany, and head of the Joint Uzbek-China Key Lab of Ecobiomes of Arid Lands at the National University of Uzbekistan. Her research focuses on microbial ecology, plant-microbe interactions, plant nutrition, stress tolerance, and biological disease control. She holds an MSc in Microbiology and Chemistry from the National University of Uzbekistan and a PhD in Agricultural Biotechnology from Humboldt University of Berlin. Her postdoctoral studies included positions at Helsinki University, Florence University, Manchester Metropolitan University, and Leiden University. She has received numerous awards, including the 2019 SCOPUS Top Scientist of the Year, the 2013 TWAS Award in Agricultural Sciences, the 2006 L'OREAL-UNESCO Fellowship, and the 2005 UNESCO-Man and Biosphere Award, among others. She served on the UN’s HLPE on Food Security and Nutrition (2018-2019), is an elected member of the Global Young Academy of the American Society of Microbiology, and is a prolific book author and volume editor. Recently, she was appointed series editor for Microbiome Research in Plants and Soil by Elsevier and serves as the Co-editor in Chief for the open-access journal Micro Environer. Javid A. Parray holds a master’s degree in Environmental Science and completed his MPhil and PhD from the University of Kashmir, and qualified for the prestigious JKSLET exam. He also conducted post-doctoral research at Kashmir University and received a Fast Track Young Scientist Project by the Science and Engineering Research Board of the Government of India. He currently teaches at the Department of Environmental Science, GDC Eidgah Srinagar, affiliated with Cluster University Srinagar. His research interests include ecological and agricultural microbiology, climate change, microbial biotechnology, and environmental microbiomes. He is a prolific author and editor of numerous papers and books and serves on the editorial boards of several high-impact journals. A member of various scientific organizations, he received the “Emerging Scientist of the Year Gold Medal in 2018. Currently, he is the national coordinator for a Swayam Moocs program on Environmental Science. Recently, he was appointed series editor for Microbiome Research in Plants and Soil by Elsevier and serves as the Executive Editor in Chief for the open-access journal Micro Environer.Prof. Kakhramon Davranov is a Director of Institute of Microbiology, Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences. He is an expert on microbial physiology and biochemistry, and Lead a research laboratory on Microbial Biotechnology. He is also President of Uzbekistan Society of Microbiology. He authored or co-authored over 200 publications in national and International journals. He also authored several books related to Microbiology and Biotechnology, published by National Publisher in Uzbekistan.
