Dr. Mohd. Sayeed Akhtar, is an assistant professor at Gandhi Faiz-e-Aam College, Shahjahanpur, U.P., India. He received his PhD degree from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), India in 2008, and conducted his postdoctoral research at the Botanical Institute, University of Basel (BIB), Switzerland (2008-2010) and Chonbuk National University (CBNU), Republic of Korea in 2011, respectively. He worked as an assistant professor at the Department of Biology, College of Natural Sciences, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia form 2011-2014, and as a Fellow researcher at the Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia (2014-2015). Dr. Akhtar has 14 years of research and 8 years teaching experience in soil microbiology, applied microbiology, environmental microbiology, molecular biology, plant pathology and plant nano-biotechnology. Dr. Akhtar has received several prestigious fellowships at national and international levels. He is one of foremost scientists in the field of plant-microbe interaction and plant nano-biotechnology. He is author and co-author of more than hundred articles in peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings and book chapters and also edited 5 books. He is an editorial board member and reviewer of several high-impact international journals. His current research is focused on rhizospheric plant-microbe interactions and their molecular biotechnology, bioremediation, biomineralization, nanofertilizers and Nanobiotechnology.Dr. Mallappa Kumara Swamy, is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Dr. Swamy obtained his PhD (Biotechnology) from Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur, India in 2013. He has more than 14 years of teaching and research experience in the fields of plant biotechnology, secondary metabolites production, phytochemistry and bioactive studies. He haspublished more than 50 research papers in peer-reviewed journals, and also an editorial board member and reviewer of several high-impact international journals. Dr. Swamy’s research focuses on cell and tissue culture technology for bioactive compound production and their bioactivity, as well as nanotechnology for medical applications.
