Dr. Sheikh Mansoor Shafi currently serves as a postdoctoral researcher at the Phenomics Laboratory within Jeju National University in South Korea. His primary research focuses on high-throughput phenomics, remote sensing and precision agriculture. Prior to this role, he held positions as a Postdoc Research Associate at SKIMS Srinagar and as a Project Associate-I at CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine Jammu (IIIM). Throughout his academic journey, Dr. Mansoor has had the opportunity to work in reputed laboratories, including the Transcriptomics Labs at SKUAST Kashmir and the Department of Biotechnology and Pathology at Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture (CITH) Rangreth Srinagar. His educational background comprises a BSc degree from SP College of Science (University of Kashmir), an MSc degree from HNBGU Uttarakhand, and a Ph.D. degree from Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu. Nusret Zencirci is a graduate of the Department of Field Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, Çukurova University. He worked as a wheat breeder at the Central Research Institute for Field Crops in Ankara and served as a national and international coordinator for the country’s national and international wheat programs and for the Türkiye–CIMMYT–ICARDA International Winter Wheat Improvement Program. He is now a professor in the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Art, Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University, Bolu, Türkiye. He sits on the editorial boards of several international journals. With his team, he has bred more than 20 bread and durum wheat cultivars, and he publishes extensively on his research interests, including cereals, biotic and abiotic stresses, plant genetic resources, and wheat breeding. Dr. Bian is a principal investigator in the Frontier Science Center of Molecular Breeding and the Department of Plant Genetics and Breeding at China Agricultural University. He earned his Ph.D. at Rutgers University in 2019, where he studied the mechanism of plant stomatal development in Dr. Juan Dong’s group. He then joined Dr. Siobhan Brady & David Segal’s groups at the University of California, Davis for his postdoc training, where he studied the transcriptional regulation of nitrogen signaling in plants and developing functional genetic tools for crops. In 2023, he joined China Agricultural University as a professor and worked on developing genome editing tools and molecular breeding of high water-efficient and nitrogen-efficient maize. His long-term research interest is to understand the mechanism of plant response to environmental factors, as well as developing tools to improve plant growth and development in adverse environments. Dr. Bian serves as an Assistant Features Editor of The Plant Cell and is a guest editor of a special issue in Genes. Dr. Faheem Shahzad Baloch is working as Professor of plant genetics and breeding Mersin University, Turkey. He received his Ph.D. with a dissertation on ‘QTL mapping in wheat’ from the faculty of agriculture, University of Çukurova, Adana, Turkey in 2012 with a joint fellowship of Turkish ministry of education and Turkish scientific and Technological council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK). In 2013, he started to work as assistant professor at Niğde Ömer Halis Demir University, Niğde Turkey. In 2015, he joined Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal Bolu, Turkey as Assistant professor. In 2018, he was promoted to associate professor in the same institute. In August 2020, he joined Sivas university of science and Technology as associate professor and is currently working as professor in the Mersin university. Dr. Faheem has more than 11 years of teaching and research experience in the plant phenomics, genetics and genomics, biotechnology specially in next generation sequencing (NGS) and DNA molecular markers in plant genetics for germplasm characterization, identification of genomic regions for traits of agricultural interest, development and validation of molecular markers for their use in marker assisted selection, and genomic prediction for plant improvement program particularly cereals and legumes and also for developing strategies for preserving this precious germplasm from Türkiye, which is the hot spot of biodiversity for most of agricultural crops and also thousands of endemic species. He led and participated in many projects funded by national and international organizations. He supervised and co-supervised MSC, PhD and post doc candidates from various countries. He visited more than 30 countries over different continents for research and collaborative purposes. He is now Management Committee from Türkiye of two COST actions (CA22146 and CA22157) and active members of different COST actions and playing important roles in different work packages of various COST actions. He participated in many international trainings on plant molecular genetics particularly at ICARDA-Syria, Copenhagen University -Denmark, Minnesota University-USA. He has over 120 publications in Web of Sciences database. He has co-edited 6 books and written over 17 book chapters on important aspects of molecular genetics in relation to plant species. He has extensive array of citations with over 4000 times as per google scholar with an h-Index of 34. Dr. Faheem serves as Editorial board member of several impacted journals such as Turkish journal agriculture and forestry, BMC Genomic data, Agronomy Journal. Biotechnology and Biotechnological Equipment, BMC Plant Biology, and guest editor for special issues in Plants and Molecular Biology Reports and also reviewer for more than 55 peer-reviewed international journals with more than 121 verified reviews according to Publons. Dr. Comertpay is an Associate Professor of Maize Breeding and Genetics at the Eastern Mediterranean Agricultural Research Institute in Adana, Turkey, an institute affiliated with TAGEM (Republic of Turkey Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies). She received her Ph.D. in 2008 from the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Çukurova, Adana, Turkey, with a dissertation on "Genomic-Based Diversity of Turkish Maize Landraces." From 2008 to 2011, she worked as an assistant professor at the University of Adıyaman, Turkey. In 2012, she joined the Eastern Mediterranean Agricultural Research Institute and has been working there ever since. Gönül has led many nationally and internationally funded projects focused on maize. Her research areas include germplasm improvement for grain maize and silage maize, as well as enhancing resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses using genomic tools. She is a member of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) and the EVA Maize Network, as well as the National Plant Breeders Union. She has numerous publications in the Web of Science database and has contributed to several book chapters. Young Suk Chung is an Associate Professor in the field of Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics, with a specialization in Precision Agriculture. Currently affiliated with Jeju National University in South Korea, he holds a pivotal role in theDepartment of Plant Resources and Environment. His academic journey commencedwith a Bachelor of Science degree from KoreaUniversity, followed by a Master of Sciencedegree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He further advanced his studies atthe same institution, completing his PhDand serving as a Postdoctoral ResearchAssociate. He engaged in phenomicsresearch activities at the Plant SciencesInstitute at Iowa State University. Hisexpertise lies at the intersection of plantbreeding, phenomics, and precision agriculture,areas in which he has made substantialcontributions. Notably, he has beenan active member of the Working Group inCOST Action CA22146 for Harnessing thePotential of Underutilized Crops to PromoteSustainable Food Production (DIVERSICROP),representing a commitment to sustainableagricultural practices on a globalscale. Additionally, his involvement withthe European Cooperation in Science andTechnology underscores his dedication tocollaborative research endeavors. With over200 publications to his credit, he has establishedhimself as a prolific researcher,contributing valuable insights to the scientificcommunity. His expertise is furtherrecognized through his roles as an editorand reviewer for esteemed journals, indicatinghis commitment to upholdingacademic rigor and quality standards.Additionally, his role as an AdjunctProfessor at Ton Duc Thang University inHo Chi Minh, Vietnam, reflects his globalengagement in advancing agriculturalknowledge and education.
