Javid A. Parray holds a master’s degree in Environmental Science and completed his MPhil and PhD from the University of Kashmir, and qualified for the prestigious JKSLET exam. He also conducted post-doctoral research at Kashmir University and received a Fast Track Young Scientist Project by the Science and Engineering Research Board of the Government of India. He currently teaches at the Department of Environmental Science, GDC Eidgah Srinagar, affiliated with Cluster University Srinagar. His research interests include ecological and agricultural microbiology, climate change, microbial biotechnology, and environmental microbiomes. He is a prolific author and editor of numerous papers and books and serves on the editorial boards of several high-impact journals. A member of various scientific organizations, he received the “Emerging Scientist of the Year Gold Medal in 2018. Currently, he is the national coordinator for a Swayam Moocs program on Environmental Science. Recently, he was appointed series editor for Microbiome Research in Plants and Soil by Elsevier and serves as the Executive Editor in Chief for the open-access journal Micro Environer.Wen-Jun Li received his PhD in microbiology from Shenyang Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is currently working as Distinguished Professor in School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China. His research mainly focuses on microbial diversity under those unusual environments, by using culture-dependent and culture-independent methods, as well as mechanisms of extremophilic microbes to adapt those unusual environments. He was awarded the WFCC (The World Federation for Culture Collections) Skerman award for microbial taxonomy in 2007, and other six provincial and ministry level awards for his outstanding research contributions on the field of microbial systematics and microbial ecology. He has successfully trained more than 150 graduate students and postdoc level students in the field of microbial taxonomy and microbial ecology at home and abroad countries.Dilfuza Egamberdieva is a Research Associate at the Leibniz Centre of Agricultural Landscape Research, Germany, and head of the Joint Uzbek-China Key Lab of Ecobiomes of Arid Lands at the National University of Uzbekistan. Her research focuses on microbial ecology, plant-microbe interactions, plant nutrition, stress tolerance, and biological disease control. She holds an MSc in Microbiology and Chemistry from the National University of Uzbekistan and a PhD in Agricultural Biotechnology from Humboldt University of Berlin. Her postdoctoral studies included positions at Helsinki University, Florence University, Manchester Metropolitan University, and Leiden University. She has received numerous awards, including the 2019 SCOPUS Top Scientist of the Year, the 2013 TWAS Award in Agricultural Sciences, the 2006 L'OREAL-UNESCO Fellowship, and the 2005 UNESCO-Man and Biosphere Award, among others. She served on the UN’s HLPE on Food Security and Nutrition (2018-2019), is an elected member of the Global Young Academy of the American Society of Microbiology, and is a prolific book author and volume editor. Recently, she was appointed series editor for Microbiome Research in Plants and Soil by Elsevier and serves as the Co-editor in Chief for the open-access journal Micro Environer. Dr. Yong-Hong Liu earned her PhD in microbiology from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences in China, where she also completed her postdoctoral research. Currently, she serves as an Associate Professor at the same institution. Her research primarily focuses on microbial diversity in unusual environments, employing culture-dependent and culture-independent methods. Additional areas of interest include the ecology and resources of microbes in saline-alkali environments, biocontrol of fungal diseases, and rhizobial interactions. In 2021, Dr Liu was honoured with the Outstanding Postdoc Award from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. She has successfully trained more than 30 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in microbial ecology. Dr. Liu has published over 30 high-impact research papers and book chapters in respected journals and publishing platforms like Elsevier, Springer, MDPI, Frontiers, etc. Furthermore, she serves on the editorial board and is a permanent journal reviewer. She is also an invited speaker at various scientific meetings and conferences in China and internationally. Additionally, Dr. Liu has been awarded four significant research projects from different Chinese organizations focusing on various aspects of microbiology.
