Dr. Prasann Kumar, assistant professor cum research intensive faculty in theDepartment of Agronomy, School of Agricultural (ICAR-Accredited), LovelyProfessional University, Punjab, specializes in stress physiology, plant tissue culture,physiology of plant?microbe/pathogen interaction, and biodiversity management.Dr. Kumar has completed the International Agricultural Rural DevelopmentProgramme from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States. He hasreceived a doctorate from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. He also hasauthored 40 books published by national and international publishers, which finda place in national as well as various Overseas Institutions’ libraries. He hasguided 19 MSc students for their thesis. Prof. Veena Chaudhary is working as an associate professor in the Departmentof Chemistry at Meerut College, Meerut, affiliated with CCS University, Meerut.Dr. Chaudhary is deeply attached to chemistry, with a specialization in environmentalchemistry. She has to her credit more than 50 research papers, 2 bookchapters, and 20 abstracts. She received numerous awards, including a YoungScientist Award, a Fellow Scientist Award, and numerous others, for her contributionsto the environmental field for the advancement of the social, welfare, andagricultural sectors. She is a life member of several scientific societies. She alsovisited abroad several times to attend international conferences and seminars forthe purpose of gathering and sharing scientific knowledge. She is handling severalresearch projects funded by DST, UP-CST, and higher education in UttarPradesh. Eric D. van Hullebusch is a Full Professor in Biogeochemistry of Engineered Ecosystems at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Université Paris Cité, France. He holds a Ph.D. in Aquatic Chemistry and Microbiology fromUniversité de Limoges. After a Marie Curie fellowship at Wageningen University & Research, where he worked on optimizing anaerobic sludge reactorswith respect to trace metalspeciation and bioavailability, he was appointed Associate Professor in 2005 at Université Gustave Eiffel. A very prolific researcher and author, his key interests lie in the biogeochemistry of metals and metalloids in engineered systems, pollutant remediation, and circular resource recovery through biohydrometallurgical techniques. He is especially focused on sustainable strategiesfor waste treatment, soil remediation, and recovering technology-critical elementsfrom agricultural and industrial wastes. Dr. Rosa Busquets is currently working as an Associate Professor in the Schoolof Life Sciences, Pharmacy and Chemistry, Faculty of Health Science Social Careand Education, Kingston University, Penrhyn Road Campus, Kingston uponThames, United Kingdom. She works toward pushing the barriers of analyticalchemistry and achieving significant improvements in monitoring molecules ofspecial environmental relevance. Rosa is a specialist in chromatography-mass spectrometry andin the analysis of complex matrices. She is particularly interested in environmental monitoring andremediation. She carries out research to remove contaminants that pose a majorthreat to ecosystems due to their toxicity and high mobility and can therefore contaminatefresh water and affect our health. Nanoparticles, pesticides, plastic degradationproducts, and pharmaceuticals are among these contaminants.xxx About the editorsKumar-BECS- Dr. Arun Lal Srivastav is working as Professor and Associate Dean (Research), Tulas University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. He received PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi. He has also done post-doctoral research at National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan. He is currently involved in the teaching of Environmental Science and Engineering, Disaster Management to the undergraduate engineering students. His research interests include water quality surveillance, climate change, water treatment, river ecosystem, soil health maintenance, engineering education, phytoremediation and waste management. Under his supervision, 3 PhD degrees have been awarded. He has published >150 research papers in various prestigious journals (Elsevier, Springer, IWA, Taylor & Francis etc.) including books, book chapters and conference publications. He has edited many books with Elsevier, Springer, NOVA, IGI global and Wiley. He worked on 04 Government sponsored projects (worth ~16 million INR) on phytoremediation, adsorption, capacity building, organic farming, leachate treatment, agro-waste management etc. He received the prestigious "Teachers Associateship for Research Excellence (TARE) Fellowship" followed by a research grant from the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Govt. of India in 2022. He has also filed 31 patents on multidisciplinary topics and 14 out of which have been granted by the Government of India. He has also been recognized among the top 2% worldwide scientists of Earth and Environmental Sciences jointly by Stanford University and Elsevier in the year 2023, 2024 and 2025. Recently, his name has been included in top 0.05% scholars of the year 2025 by ScholarGPS in Environmental Sciences.
