Current Indian Science

Vijay Gahlaut, M.Sc., Ph.D., N.E.T (CSIR-UGC), is working as DST INSPIRE Faculty, in CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, India. With 11 years of research and teaching experience in areas of Crop Biotechnology and Genomics, he has identified several genomic regions and candidate genes on wheat chromosomes that were involved in water and heat stress tolerance. He has published more than 30 international research papers in reputed journals and several book chapters. He is serving as Editor in nearly 5 scientific journals. His Google scholar h-index is 16 and i10-index is 20.

Dr. SS Gill completed his PhD from AMU, Aligarh and postdoctoral studies from International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB). Since 2010, he has been working as Professor (Asstt.) of Agriculture Biotechnology at Centre for Biotechnology, Maharshi Dayanand University. Dr. Gill in collaboration with Dr. Narendra Tuteja group at ICGEB conferred the novel function of helicases in abiotic stress tolerance. He has published >100 papers in the journals of international repute with over > 17141 citations and an h-index - 45, edited >30 books (Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, CABI, CRC Press, Academic Press, IK etc.) and has been serving as an editorial board member in the journals of International repute. Among many awards, Dr. Gill has also been conferred with Research Excellence & Citation Award from Clarivate Analytics (Web of Science) in 2017 in the individual category 'Agricultural Sciences'. Dr. Gill has also featured consecutively in the "World Ranking of Top 2% Scientists" in 2021 & 2022 by Stanford University, USA and Elsevier EV.

Dr. Nutan Kaushik is a professional with extensive experience of over 25 years in R&D and over 16 years in PG teaching in the field of biotechnology, plant protection, natural products, analytical chemistry and agriculture policy. As head of R & D research group she has been involved in project development and management, laboratory management, supervision and teaching of post graduate, Ph. D. students and researchers, training of other researchers, publication and grant writing. Dr. Kaushik has directed crossfunctional & research teams using interactive & motivational leadership; acknowledged for coaching, guiding & mentoring team members to achieve resource wise productivity & optimization. Has leveraged skills in analyzing collected information, comparing several types of research data and engaging in safe research activities; specializes in agro-industrial research, having worked on development of biopesticides and on methods for monitoring environmental pollution. She encourages researchers to develop skills, knowledge and experience in aspects of research management such as budget & project management, teaching, publication & conference attendance, outreach activities, and membership of committees.

Dr. Sachin Kumar is presently working as Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut (UP) India. Dr. Kumar obtained his Ph.D. degree in Genetics and Plant Breeding with specialization in Molecular Biology and Crop Biotechnology from Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut in 2012. He was awarded with the highly prestigious "Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Visiting Fellowships" at Semiarid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada (AAFC), Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada. Dr. Kumar has published over 30 research articles in highly reputed peer reviewed Journals e.g., BMC Genomics, TAG, Euphytica, PLoS One, Field Crop Res, Mol. Breed., TGG, etc. His research area covers Plant Genomics and Molecular Breeding in cereal crops particularly wheat.

Dr. Malyan, is a Researcher in the Research Management and Outreach Division, National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India. He obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in the Environmental Sciences from Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut and Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi respectively. He received UGC-Junior Research Fellowship and qualified National Eligibility Test conducted by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) as well as Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) in the Environmental Sciences and Earth Sciences, respectively. He is a recipient of the prestigious Indio-Israel Bilateral Fellowship (ARO, Postdoctoral Fellowship-India and China) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Israel in 2017. Dr. Malyan has developed nature-based solution for greenhouse gases mitigation from rice soils. For his Ph.D. research work, ICAR awarded him with the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for P.G. Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Agricultural and Allied Sciences 2018. He has published more than 57 research papers, and has an h-index of 21, i10-index of 35 with more than 1430 citations in international literature.

Dr. Shiv Prasad has received his Ph.D. degree in Environmental Science from ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India. He is currently working as Principal Scientist (ARS) and has 21 years of experience in teaching and research at PG school ICAR-IARI, New Delhi. He has made significant contributions in research related to monitoring, assessment of greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation from agriculture, impact assessment studies, use of lignocellulosic biomass and screening of efficient microbial strains for biofuels production, heavy metals assessment and pollution monitoring in urban agriculture. He has published more than 105 research papers, 35 book chapters, authored 4 books (3 in English and one in Indian languages Hindi) and 1 analytical lab manual. His research papers have been cited more than 4186 times in the international literature with H-index 22 and i-index 42. He is also the recipient of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Award - 2014 (ICAR) for the best technical book (NRM and Engineering) in Agriculture in allied Sciences and also recipient of RCR-30 International Award of Elsevier (2018).

Dr. Sharma is currently working as Principal Scientist (Biotechnology), Division of Crop Improvement, ICAR- Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, Karnal, India and also teaching faculty at CCS Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar. He directs a research group studying the role of sRNAs and epigenetics for biotic and abiotic stresses, Bioinformatics and NGS based marker discovery in wheat. He teaches courses in Molecular Biology and computational Biology to graduate students. Dr. Sharma has published more than 128 national and international research papers, 25 invited chapters, and 10 scientific review articles; and edited 11 books on Biotic and Abiotic stresses including RNAi technology. He has guided five students for Ph.D. in Biotechnology & Bioinformatrics and has been a mentor for postdoctoral fellowships and DST-Scientist. Dr. Sharma was conferred the Young Scientists Award of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Pran Vohra Award of the Indian Science Congress Association, Fellow of National Academy of Biological Sciences, Fellow of Indian Virological Society, and Fellow Society for Advancement of Wheat and Barley Research. He has worked at and visited many pioneering laboratories of the USA, the UK, Japan, France, China, the Netherlands, Indonesia, Turkey, and Israel.

Dr. J. C. Tarafdar did his M. Sc. and Ph. D. degrees in Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry from Indian Agricultural Research Institute and Post Doctorate from Institute of Agricultural Chemistry, Goettingen, Germany. He is the first one who successfully developed biosynthesized nano nutrients and nano induced polysaccharide powder for agricultural use. He has developed many new techniques which are now used in Soil Biology. Dr. Tarafdar has published 373 research articles in national and international journals. He has four patents and 73 new organisms to his credit. Dr. Tarafdar received many awards most notable are Sukumar Basu Memorial Award, IMPHOS-FAI Award, Prof. S.K. Mukherjee Memorial Award, Dr. N. S. Randhawa Memorial Award, ISSS Platinum Jubilee Commemoration Award etc. Dr. Tarafdar is a Fellow of the most prestigious Alexander von Humboldt (AvH), Germany and DAAD, Germany. He is also a fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Indian Society of Soil Science, Indian Society of Salinity Research Scientists and Society of Fertilizer and Environment. He has to his credit >8600 citations and 44 H-index. Dr. Tarafdar has been placed amongst the top 2 Scientists, across all sciences in the world, by Stanford University, USA.

Dr. Gayatri Tripathi is a recognized researcher in the field of fish disease diagnosis and health management. Currently, she is working as a Principal Scientist, Division of Aquatic Animal and Health Management at ICAR- Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai. She is holding memberships of highly acclaimed professional societies and effectively working as an editor and reviewers for reputed journals. She has completed 3 projects as PI and 10 projects as Co-PI. She has led technical presentations at different scientific forums and the assessment of project applications and reports. She has an enviable track record of scientific achievements through scientific publications as well as researching and implementing new scientific concepts and procedures. Dr. Tripathi has the competencies to independently design projects and experiments and is known for superior written and verbal communication, documentation skills along with the ability to effectively work in interdisciplinary teams. She has been awarded the Best Scientist and Best Extension Scientist Award by the Institute for her excellent performance. She has guided several Ph.D. and M.F.Sc. students. She has published more than 50 research papers in both national and international peer reviewed journals, 15 popular and review articles, 41 manual chapters, 4 technical bulletins and 3 book chapters. Her total citations are 1450, h-index-19 and i10-index-29.

Dr. Arun Dev Sharma has 17 yrs of rich experience in teaching and research. He has published about 80 papers in national and international journals. He has supervised more than 40 students at PG level and 1 student at PhD level. He is also the coordinator of DST govt. of India INSPIRE and unnat bharat abiyan programmes. He received about 5 research projects from UGC, DBT and DST govtf India. Dr. Sharma received the best teacher award from the Punjab academy of sciences. In addition, he has presented his findings in various countries like the USA, Italy, China and Poland. He has conducted various conferences and workshops at national and state level and has received grants from DBT, DST and UGC Govt of India. At present, he is working in the area of phytochemistry. During his research, 3 herbal products have been launched, including eucalyptus oil, lemongrass powder and herbal pesticide. At present, he is actively working on the role of eucalyptus oil on covid-19 and black fungus diseases in India. Under DST-SEED govt of India programme, and kind support from Principal Dr. GS Samra, he has trained many people across Jalandhar on the extraction of essential oils and their use from underutilized crops for the upliftment of scocio-economic conditions of citizens in Jalandhar district.

Dr. Meena is working as Senior Scientist at ICAR-Directorate of Rapeseed-Mustard Research, Bharatpur (Rajasthan), India. He has more than 12 years of research experience and published more than 30 research articles in well reputed National and International peer reviewed journals apart from other publications like books, book chapters, popular and technical articles etc. He has been awarded the Young Scientist Award and Scientist of the Year Award, holding post of Associate Editor and Editorial Board Member of many International journals, acting as reviewer for highly reputed National and International journals. His major fields of research work are crop management (specialized in weed management), nutrient management, soil water pollution, wastewater reuse, heavy metal remediation etc.

Afroz Alam has been involved in teaching and research since the year 2000 in various areas of Plant Science, especially, Bryology and stress plant physiology. He has completed his Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Lucknow, U.P. (India) in 2006, and qualified for the National Eligibility Test in 2004. Since 2010, he has been working as Associate Professor in the Department of Bioscience & Biotechnology, Banasthali Vidyapith (India). He has extensive publications in reputed journals to his credit. He has authored 12 books and guided 10 students for their doctoral degree. He is an active member of various botanical associations and Fellow of CMS (India).

Prof. Chanchal Deep Kaur is one of the eminent known Pharmacist and she is currently working as a Professor and Principal at the Rungta College of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research, Raipur, Chhattisgarh affiliated to Chhattisgarh Swami Vivekananda Technical University, Bhilai, C.G. She has done D.Pharm, B.Pharm, M.Pharm, PhD and MBA. Her key areas of interest include Targeting approaches, NDDS for plant actives, skin cancer, ovarian cancer and lymphatic disorders.

Dr. Kanika Khanna has been involved in research and teaching since 2015 in different areas of Plant Sciences, specifically Plant Stress Physiology, Plant-Microbe Interactions, Plant-Nematode Interactions, Abiotic/Biotic stresses, Heavy metal toxicity and Plant Growth and Development. She completed her Ph.D in Life Sciences (Botany), from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India in 2019 and qualified for ICAR-NET-2016 and GATE-2017. She is currently working in D.A.V University, Jalandhar, in the Department of Microbiology. She has extensive publications in reputed journals and authored nearly 40 book chapters and 27 research articles and reviews and many are under the process of publication. She has also been awarded many prestigious awards, Young Scholar Award (2019), Excellence Award (2020), Best Women Young Scientist Award (2021) and Appreciation Awards by M.P of Canada (2019). She has also presented her research work in many International and National Conferences and won Best Presenter Awards. Her Google Scholar Citations are 870 with an h-index of 15 and i-10 index 18. She has been reviewer and editorial member in many well-reputed journals of Elsevier, Springer, Willey, Frontiers and Taylor and Francis group.

Dr Prashant Kumar Singh central research area focuses on plant and cyanobacterial stress and developmental biology covering the omics approach for decoding and targeting the signalling, regulatory and metabolic networks (including epigenetic modifications). He has published ~75 articles and four books. Dr Singh also has exposure to various national and international institutes. Dr Singh has also been awarded the Young Scientist Award, UGC, New Delhi Start-up research grant, ICMR-Seed grant, a lifetime member of various scientific societies, and a reviewer of multiple peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Ashwani Kumar is a Plant Physiologist and working on various aspects of Crop Improvement for salt affected areas. He is a PhD student in Moroney Lab, Dept. Of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University. He made significant contributions for studying the physiological and biochemical mechanisms of different crop plants in varying environments of salinity or drought. The identified salt tolerance mechanism of halophytes is a milestone in identification of their survival and tolerance mechanism along with phytoremediation property. In addition, he has been associated in the research crops namely, rice, wheat, chickpea, garden pea, okra, tomato, Ber, Beal, Peach, Guava, Sapota etc for their response under abiotic stresses and their output is being utilized for breeding of climate smart crop varieties and fruit trees. He has Google Scholar Citation of 545 with an h-index of 12. Dr. Ashwani has more than 35 peer-reviewed research papers, 10 book chapters, 15 popular articles, 4 technical bulletins and 9 training manuals, success stories etc along with his teaching experience of more than 8 years.

Dr. Asha B. Thomas is the Research and Development Coordinator, HOD and Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Dr. D. Y. Patil Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research, Pune, MS, India. She has 22 years of teaching experience in various capacities. She has also 18 years of experience in research and is actively involved in guiding undergraduate, post graduate and doctoral students in Savitribai Phule Pune University on various research projects. Her areas of expertise include analytical/bioanalytical method development and validation, drug design and synthesis, herb-drug interaction studies and Phytopharmaceutical product development. Dr. Thomas has authored more than 69 manuscripts, published 02 patents with IPO and has been listed in the AD Scientific Index 2021 under World Scientist and University Ranking 2021. She had received the Vishwakarma Awards, AICTE, India; Dr. P. D. Sethi Annual Award 2013, 2015 and 2016 Certificate of Merit for her research contributions.