Shashank Shekhar Solankey, PhD, is an Assistant Professor-cum-Jr. Scientist (Horticulture: Vegetable Science) at Dr. Kalam Agricultural College, Kishanganj under Bihar Agricultural University (BAU), Sabour (Bhagalpur), India. He has more than seven years of experience in teaching and research. He has previously worked as a Research Associate at ICAR-IIVR, Varanasi, India. His prime targeted area of research is biotic and abiotic stress resistance as well as quality improvement in vegetables, particularly, solanaceous crops and okra. Dr. Solankey has supervised several MSc students and has handled several research projects. Among his many national and international awards are a Best Teacher Award (2016) and Best Researcher Award (2016) by BAU. He has published over 50 research papers as well as review papers, a souvenir paper, books, an abstract book, over 35 book chapters, popular articles, etc. He is a life-time member of several societies and is an editorial board member and reviewer for many reputed journals. Dr. Solankey acquired a master's degree in Vegetable Science from Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Ayodhya, India, and a doctorate in Horticulture from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. Md. Shamim, PhD, is an Assistant Professor-cum-Scientist in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering at Dr. Kalam Agricultural College, Kishanganj (Bihar Agricultural University), India. He is the author or coauthor of over 30 peer-reviewed journal articles, over fifteen book chapters, and two conference papers. He has several authored and edited books to his credit along with several practical books. He is an editorial board member of several national and international journals. Recently, Dr. Shamim received the Young Faculty Award 2016 from the Venus International Foundation, Chennai, India. Before joining Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour. Dr. Shamim worked at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, where he was engaged in heat-responsive gene regulation in wheat. Dr. Shamim also has working experience at the Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur, India, on molecular and phylogeny analysis of several Fusarium fungus and has also done research at the Biochemistry Department of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Institute on plant protease inhibitor isolation and their characterization. He is a member of the soil microbiology core research group at Bihar Agricultural University (BAU), where he helps with providing appropriate direction and assisting with prioritizing the research work on PGPRs. He has proved himself as an active scientist in the area of biotic stress management in rice and other crops, especially in yellow stem borer management by isolating protease inhibitor from jackfruit seeds and sheath blight resistance mechanism in wild rice, cultivated rice, and other hosts. Dr. Shamim acquired his master's (Biotechnology) and PhD (Agricultural Biotechnology) degrees from Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Faizabad, India, with specialization in biotic stress management in rice through molecular and proteomics tools.
