Prof. Pradeep Verma completed his Ph.D. from Sardar Patel University Gujarat, India, in 2002. He worked as a visiting scientist and Post Doctoral Researcher at UFZ Center for Environmental Research, Halle, and Gottingen University, Germany, respectively. He Joined Reliance Life Sciences, Mumbai and later he was awarded the JSPS Post-Doctoral Fellowship and joined the RISH, Kyoto University, Japan. Prof. Verma began his independent academic career in 2009 as a Reader and Founder Head at the Department of Microbiology at Assam University. In 2011, he joined Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya (A Central University), Bilaspur as an Associate Professor at the Department of Biotechnology.Currently, he works as a Professor and Group Leader of the Bioprocess and Bioenergy laboratory at the Department of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, Central University of Rajasthan Ajmer, India. His area of expertise involves Microbial Diversity, Bioremediation, Bioprocess Development, and Lignocellulosic and Algal Biomass based Biorefinery. He also holds 12 International patents in microwave-assisted biomass pretreatment and bio-butanol production. He has completed two collaborated projects worth 150 million INR in microbial diversity and bioenergy. He has more than 92+ research/review articles in peer-reviewed international journals and contributed to several 52+ book chapters in different edited books. He has also edited 20+ books for international publishers. . His work has attracted significant impact which is evident from 6370+ citations with h-index – 42, i-10- index-99 He is a Guest editor to the reviewer to several reputed journals of Springer, Frontiers, MDPI, Bentham Sciences, and T&F. He is a member of various National & International societies/academies. He is also a recipient of various prestigious awards such as the Ron-Cockcroft Award by the Swedish society, and UNESCO Fellow ASCR Prague. He has been awarded with Fellow of Mycological Society of India (MSI-2020), Prof. P.C. Jain Memorial Award, Mycological Society of India 2020, and Fellow of Biotech Research Society, India (2021).Dr. Bikash Kumar is currently working as a National Post-Doctoral Fellow, at the Indian Institute of Technology, Indore, He received his BSc (Hons-2012) and MSc (Distinction-2014) in Biotechnology and Bioinformatics from Guru Ghasidas University, Bilaspur (A Central University) and Pondicherry Central University respectively. Later, in 2014 he joined the Bioprocess and Bioenergy Laboratory under the research supervision of Prof Pradeep Verma from the Department of Microbiology, Central University of Rajasthan, India. The research was focused on biomass pretreatment, and microbial enzyme production (cellulases, laccase, xylanases) for greener energy and environment. He received his Ph.D. in 2021 and Post PhD, he worked as a Research Associate at the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati. He has contributed 19 research/review papers in reputed peer-reviewed journals, and 19 book chapters in edited books published in Springer, CRC Press, and Elsevier. He has been acknowledged for providing technical support to Prof. Pradeep Verma in editing 11 books. His work has attracted significant impact which is evident from 1980+ citations with h-index – 21, i-10- index-27. He is the recipient of several awards i.e., AMI-Young Scientist Award, INSA-NASI-SRF, CSIR-SRF, JNMF scholarship, DST-SERB N-PDF, etc. He is a reviewer of 20+ peer-reviewed research journals and a Guest Editor in reputed journals.
