Prashant Kumar Singh works as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biotechnology at Pachhunga University College, Mizoram University, Aizawl, Mizoram. He earned his Ph.D. at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, and has since held postdoctoral and visiting research positions in China and Israel. Over a sustained research career, he has published widely and edited books on cyanobacteria and plant molecular biology, with a research focus centered on the molecular mechanisms of stress adaptation in plants, including epigenetic regulation. He has received several national research fellowships and awards, holds memberships in multiple scientific societies, and serves on the editorial or reviewer boards of numerous peer-reviewed journals. María F. Fillat earned the Ph.D. degree in Sciences (University of Zaragoza, Spain) in 1988. She completed her instruction as PhD student at the University of Konstanz (Germany) and Emory University (GA, USA) studying the role of flavoproteins flavodoxin and ferredoxin-NADP+ reductase in photosynthetic electron transport and nitrogen fixation in cyanobacteria. From 1989 to 1991, Dr. Fillat worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Utrecht (The Netherlands) where she studied several aspects of molecular genetics in cyanobacteria. Since 2000, Dr. Fillat´s work is mainly focused in the functional study of FUR (ferric uptake regulation) proteins in cyanobacteria. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 1999 and Professor in 2012. Dr. Viji Sitther serves as a professor of biology at Morgan State University, USA. Her research specializes on the genetic manipulation of cyanobacteria and use of nanotechnological approaches for sustainable energy applications. She holds M.Phil., Ph.D. degrees in the biological sciences, and has more than 20 years of research experience. Her efforts to genetically engineer genes for salt tolerance and lipid production, and the use of plasmon-resonant nanomaterial for improved light capture have led to patents, and a start-up company, “HaloCyTech reliant on the technology has been formed. Ajay Kumar is currently an Assistant Professor at the Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, India. He previously served as a Visiting Scientist at the Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center, Israel (2018–2022), and completed his doctoral research at the Department of Botany, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, focusing on plant–microbe interactions. Dr. Kumar’s research expertise spans plant–microbe interactions, microbial biocontrol, postharvest fruit disease management, microbial endophytes of medicinal plants, and cyanobacteria–pesticide interactions. He is a prolific author in leading international journals and is also actively engaged in academic editing with major publishers such as Elsevier, Springer, CRC Press, and Wiley. Dr. Kumar currently serves as an Associate Editor for Frontiers in Microbiology and BMC Microbiology, a Guest Editor for Microorganisms and Plants (MDPI), and a Series Editor for Plant and Soil Microbiome (Elsevier).
