Aryadeep Roychoudhury is currently serving as Professor in the Discipline of Life Sciences, School of Sciences, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi. Prior to joining IGNOU, he worked as Assistant Professor in the Postgraduate Department of Biotechnology at St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata. Prof. Roychoudhury completed his BSc (Honours) in Botany from Presidency College, Kolkata, and his MSc in Biophysics and Molecular Biology from the University of Calcutta. He obtained his PhD in Life Sciences from Bose Institute, Kolkata, under Jadavpur University, specializing in Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. With over 25 years of research experience, his current work focuses on the physiological and molecular responses of plants under diverse abiotic stresses, including fluoride toxicity, heavy metals, salinity, and drought, with particular emphasis on cell signaling pathways, signaling molecules, and elicitors. In recognition of his scientific contributions, Prof. Roychoudhury received the Young Scientist Award (2019) from the International Foundation for Environment and Ecology at the University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, India. He was also awarded the Distinguished Scientist Award (2024) by the Institute of Ecotoxicology and Environmental Sciences, India. His name has been included in the Stanford–Elsevier’s World’s Top 2% Scientists list. Dr. Durgesh Kumar Tripathi is currently an Associate Professor at Amity Institute of Organic Agriculture, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida, India. He is the recipient of ‘Dr DS Kothari Post-Doctoral Fellowship’ of the UGC, New Delhi. Dr. Tripathi has received his D.Phil. in Science from University of Allahabad, India. During this period, Dr. Tripathi worked extensively on phytolith analysis, crop stress physiology, agro-nanotechnology and molecular biology. He has expertise on laser spectroscopy. His research interests encompass stress tolerance mechanisms in plants. Presently, he is working with nano-materials and their interactions with plants to find out their detoxification mechanisms, he is also working on Silicon, Nitric oxide and hormonal crosstalk against abiotic stress in plants.
