Dr. Bhoopander Giri: Received his Ph.D in Mycorrhizal Research from the Department of Botany, University of Delhi in 2001. He has worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, USA and is currently working as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Botany, Swami Shraddhanand College, University of Delhi, Delhi. He is a recipient of CSIR Research Associateship (2003), DST Young Scientist Fellowship (2005) and Raman Post-Doctoral Fellowship. Dr Giri has served as a General Secretary for International Symbiosis Society (ISS), USA. He is a life-member/member of many prestigious academic societies. Besides, he serves as a reviewer for several international and national journals, including Experimental and Environmental Botany, Planta, Applied Soil Ecology, Journal of Plant Growth Regulation, Agroforestry System, Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, Scientia Horticulture, Acta Physiologia Plantarum, Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research, Journal of Experimental Botany, Plant Science Today, Institute for Life Long Learning, University of Delhi (e-content) and UGC-CEC pre-view subject expert. Dr. Giri has published more than 40 papers in the national and international peer-reviewed journals and books. He has presented research papers in several national and international conferences (Denmark, Switzerland, Canada, U.K and USA etc.) and also served as session chair and organizing secretary for a couple of conferences. Dr. Giri has edited a few books namely, Root Biology, Microorganisms in Saline Environments: Strategies and Functions, Biofertilizers for Sustainable Agriculture and Environment, and Soil Health published by Springer International Publishing AG-A Part of Nature.Dr. Mahaveer P Sharma is currently working in Agricultural Research Service as Principal Scientist (Agricultural Microbiology) at Indian Institute of Soybean Research, Indore (Under ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research)-DARE, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Govt. of India). Dr Sharma has started his career in mycorrhizal research at University of Delhi and TERI New Delhi and while serving TERI he obtained Ph.D. in Microbiology from Jiwaji University Gwalior in 2002. He has specialised in soil microbiological research involving the uses of plant growth promoting microbes particularly arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in improved plant growth, soil carbon sequestration, drought tolerance and overall productivity of crops. He has been awarded many awards like gold medal award during his master’s course, best paper presentation and travel grant awards for participating abroad in various scientific meetings/conferences. He owned several external research grants (DBT, DST, ICAR) for his research on applied aspects of plant-AMF-microbe interactions. He has also been awarded the prestigious DBT-postdoctoral CREST Award-2013 under which he worked in ARS-USDA, MD USA during 2013-2014 on signature fatty acid biomarkers in soil. He is life member of several professional societies, member of scientific bodies, reviewer of many journals related to agri-life sciences (Frontiers, Elsevier, Springer, Scientific Reports etc.,) and deputed abroad to Iran, Australia, Portugal, Switzerland, USA at various occasions to participate in meetings and conferences. There are about 80 important research articles published in refereed journals, magazines and reviews articles in books of international repute and has many microbial accessions with NCBI database and cultures deposited in International Microbial Repository Authorities to his credit.
