Mohd. Sayeed Akhtar, PhD, is a Senior Assistant Professor at Gandhi Faiz-e-Aam College, Shahjahanpur,U.P., India. He received his PhD degree from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India, prior to conductingpostdoctoral research at the Botanical Institute, University of Basel, Switzerland, and Chonbuk NationalUniversity, Republic of Korea. He was formerly an Assistant Professor at Jimma University in Ethiopia andresearch fellow at the Universiti Putra Malaysia’s (UPM) Institute of Tropical Agriculture. He has beenlisted among the top 2% of scientists in the world consecutively from past three years, according toStanford University in the United States. Dr. Akhtar is the author and co-author of more than 150 articles inpeer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings, and book chapters, and has edited over 20 books. Hehas received many awards and honors for his work. A member and fellow of many prestigiousorganizations, he is also an editorial board member and reviewer for several international journals. Hiscurrent work focuses on the molecular biotechnology, bioremediation, biomineralization, nanofertilizers,and nanobiotechnology of rhizospheric plant-microbe interactions.Khalid Rehman Hakeem, PhD, is a Professor at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Aftercompleting his doctorate (botany, specialization in plant eco-physiology and molecular biology) at JamiaHamdard, New Delhi, India, he worked as a lecturer at the University of Kashmir, India, and at UniversitiPutra Malaysia, Selangor, where he was a postdoctoral fellow researcher for several years. Dr. Hakeemhas more than 15 years of teaching and research experience in plant ecophysiology, biotechnology andmolecular biology, medicinal plant research, plant-microbe-soil interactions, as well as in environmentalstudies. He is the recipient of several fellowships at both national and international levels. He has servedas a visiting scientist at Jinan University, Guangzhou, China. To date, Dr. Hakeem has authored and editedmany books and has published many research publications in international journals and 55 book chaptersin edited volumes. He is on the advisory board of Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK, and is also a fellowof the Plantae Group of the American Society of Plant Biologists.
