Abha Manohar K, Ph.D. is currently working as Assistant Professor, Forestry in Centurion University of Technology and Management, Odisha, India with teaching and research experience of more than five years. She holds a master degree from Sam Higginbottom University of Technology and Management and doctoral degree in forestry from Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India. Prior to joining as Assistant Professor in the university, she has worked under National Medicinal Plants Board Project as a Junior Research Fellow in Uttar Bange Krishi Viswavidyalaya. The focus of her research and teaching is on medicinal plants, tissue culture, forestry, conservation, ethnobotany and agroforestry with national and international publications including 25 Research papers, 11 book chapters and one book. She has trained one master student. Dr. Abha Manohar K has attended more than nine national and international conferences and reviewing research articles for number of scientific journals.Gopal Shukla, Ph.D., is currently working as Professor & Head in the Department of Forestry at North Eastern Hill University, Tura, Meghalaya, India. He has worked as faculty member in the Department of Forestry at Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya (UBKV), Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India. He has more than 13 years of experience in forestry teaching, research, and extension. He has worked on different projects, including the National Agricultural Innovation Project, National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture, and also as a DST- SERB young scientist on the project entitled “carbon stock of different land uses of Terai Zone of West Bengal” at UBKV. His specialization is forest ecology and his research and development work is on agroforestry, medicinal plants, forest ecology, and conservation. He has published more than 100 papers and articles in refereed journals, 30 book chapters, and eight books. Dr. Shukla also guided four PhD and six MSc students in the field of forestry. He received the DST- SERB Young Scientist award in 2012.Saikat Gantait, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in Genetics & Plant Breeding, as well as a Plant Breeder in the Crop Research Unit, Directorate of Research, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (BCKV) (State Agricultural University), India. Following completion of his PhD in Biotechnology from BCKV, he gained advanced research experience leading a group to conduct fruitful research during working as Research Associate in a DBT (Govt. of India)-funded project, followed by working as a Post-Doctoral Researcher in University Putra Malaysia. He has guided/co-guided multiple MSc and PhD students. His 18-year research works, so far, include molecular markers, plant tissue culture, polyploidy-induction, short-term (encapsulation/synthetic seed) and long-term (cryopreservation) conservation of medicinal and ornamental plant germplasms. In addition, he is acting as Editorial Board Member in multiple journals including Springer Nature, Elsevier, and Frontiers. Dr. Gantait has reviewed more than 450 manuscripts as an ad-hoc reviewer in more than 75 different eminent journals from Springer, Elsevier, Taylor and Francis, PLoS, Wiley, etc. Dr. Gantait was awarded with a Post-Doc fellowship from MOHE, Malaysia and successfully passed 2 years of advanced training at University Putra Malaysia on plant tissue culture and germplasm conservation. Till date, Dr. Gantait has published 165 articles/chapters in peer-reviewed journals and books, mostly as the first/senior author (with cumulative SCI Impact Factor of more than 350 with 4500+ Google Scholar citations), and he has edited three books. He has been included in the list of the Top 2% Scientists Worldwide (2023) by Stanford University. Dr. Gantait, so far, has exhibited his research works in more than 40 national and international conferences/seminars/symposia.A. P. Das, Ph.D. is a retired Professor of Botany, University of North Bengal, Siliguri, West Bengal, India. Dr. Das is now working as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Botany, Rajiv Gandhi University, Rono Hills, Arunachal Pradesh, India. He is teaching plant taxonomy for over 45 years. Originally a student of plant taxonomy, he later diversified his fields of work to include biodiversity, conservation, ethnobotany, ecology, weed biology, palynology, remote sensing, and aerobiology. He has published more than 240 research papers, three text books, three research based books, two edited books and also some popular science books. So far, 27 students have been awarded a Ph.D. under his supervision. At different times he has acted as Head of the Botany Department, Director of the Centre for Life Science, Coordinator for the Department of Biotechnology, and Head of the Department of Tea Science, NBU. Dr. Das has established the East Himalayan Society for Spermatophyte Taxonomy in the year 2007 and initiated the publication of the journal Pleione. He has also developed the NBU Garden of Medicinal Plants and NBU-Herbarium.Sumit Chakravarty, Ph.D. has a wide experience of more than 20 years in forestry training, research and development. He is currently working as a Professor of Forestry, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India. He holds a master’s degree in Forestry and doctoral degree in Agronomy from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. He has conducted research on several aspects of forestry, agroforestry, medicinal plants and climate change with nationally and internationally reputed publications. This includes 120 research papers, 48 book chapters and eight books. He has successfully completed and continues to work on 15 research projects on forest ecology, medicinal plants and agroforestry. He has trained more than 50 master and doctoral students in the field of forestry. Dr. Chakravarty has attended more than 50 national and international conferences in the capacity of presenter and invited speaker.
