Diego Hojsgaard obtained his Ph.D. (2010) in Natural Resources (Botany) from the National University of the Northeast, Argentina. He was a Post-doctoral Fellow at Vienna University, Austria, during 2010-2011, before joining The University of Göttingen as a non-tenured Assistant Professor in 2012. Since 2016 he has acted as Visiting Professor at the National University of Misiones in Argentina. He travelled extensively in Europe and South America, the United States, England and China and visited Universities and Botanic Gardens in about 16 countries. He is currently a Guest Scientist in the Taxonomy and Evolutionary Biology group at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research in Germany. Diego does research in Plant Evolutionary Biology and Genetics, focusing on understanding how species use different mechanisms to maximize the exploitation of genetic variability during adaptation and speciation. His projects address topics in plant reproductive biology with an emphasis on apomixis, including ovule ontogeny and the origin of different types of female gametophytes, plant cytotype interactions (population dynamics) and natural distributions, extant genetic variability and the ecology of adaptation. He has published 40 research articles, 3 book chapters and edited one book. Dr. T. Pullaiah is a former Professor at the Department of Botany at Sri Krishnadevaraya University in Andhra Pradesh, India, where he has taught for more than 35 years. He has held several positions at the university, including Dean, Faculty of Biosciences, Head of the Department of Botany, Head of the Department of Biotechnology, and Member of Academic Senate. He was President of Indian Botanical Society (2014), President of the Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy (2013) and Fellow of Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Sciences. He was awarded the Panchanan Maheshwari Gold Medal, the Prof. P.C.Trivedi Medal, the Dr. G. Panigrahi Memorial Lecture award of the Indian Botanical Society and Prof. Y.D. Tyagi Gold Medal of the Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy, and a Best Teacher Award from Government of Andhra Pradesh. Under his guidance 54 students obtained their doctoral degrees. He has authored 52 books, edited 23 books, and published over 330 research papers, including reviews and book chapters. His books include Advances in Cell and Molecular Diagnostics (published by Elsevier), Camptothecin and Camptothecin producing Plants (Elsevier) Ethnobotany of India (5 volumes published by Apple Academic Press), Global Biodiversity (4 volumes, Apple Academic Press), Red Sanders: Silviculture and Conservation (Springer), Genetically Modified Crops (2 volumes, Springer), Monograph on Brachystelma and Ceropegia in India (CRC Press), etcs. He was also a member of Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Professor Pullaiah received his PhD from Andhra University, India, attended Moscow State University, Russia, and worked as Post-Doctoral Fellow during 1976-1978.
