Dr. Rafiq Lone is presently working as Assistant Professor of Botany at Central University of Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir- India. He has completed his M. Sc and Ph.D. in Botany from Jiwaji University, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India. Dr. Lone have been awarded National Post-Doctoral Fellowship (N-PDF) by SERB, DST, Government of India. Previously he was working as Assistant Professor in Botany at SBBS University, Khiala Jalandhar, Punjab, Lecturer in higher education, Jammu and Kashmir, Teaching Assistant at School of Studies in Botany, Jiwaji University, Gwalior-India, and Project Fellow in a project funded by MPCST-Bhopal-(M.P)-India. Dr Lone has 8 years of teaching and 12 years of research experience He has published more than 30 research papers in National and International journals besides published more than 16 book chapters and two edited books are also to his credit. Dr Lone has attended 30 national and international conferences across the country and has presented papers on plant microbe interaction and plant phenolics. He has many awards to his credit. His main area of research interest focuses on Plant-microbe interaction, Plant Nutrition, Plant Phenolics and Invasion Biology. Dr. Salim Khan is working as a Research Associate since October 2008 in the Department of Botany and Microbiology, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. He has completed his Ph.D in Biotechnology in 2008 from Hamdard University, New Delhi, India. He has completed M.Sc in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Uttarakhand, India. He has worked as a Guest Lecturer in Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi from 2006-2008. He has published many national and international research articles. Dr. Khan has completed five research projects funded by research Centre of Science College, Centre of Excellence in Biotechnology, Deanship of Scientific Research and National Plan for Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia. He has many patents nationally and internationally. His main research interest concentrates on molecular markers, seed cryo-banking, Next Generation Sequencing and plant DNA banking. Dr. Abdullah M. Al-Sadi is currently the Dean of the College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences & Professor of plant pathology at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. He obtained his PhD in plant pathology from the University of Queensland, Australia. His research targets plant diseases affecting vegetable and fruit crops, with a focus on the etiology, population structure and management options using chemicals, cultural practices and biological control. Al-Sadi has 288 publications, of which 178 are refereed papers published in journals indexed in Scopus/WoS, with a cumulative impact factor of 399. He has supervised 22 PhD, 34 MSc and 56 BSc final year students. Al-Sadi isin the editorial and referee board of more than 20 international journals.
