Prof. Jata Shankar, Ph.D., M.S., is a distinguished academician and researcher serving as a Professor in the Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics at Jaypee University of Information Technology, Waknaghat Solan, India. His academic journey includes earning a Ph.D. from the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology-Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in association with the Department of Biosciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India. Notably, he pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University, USA, and received additional postdoctoral support from an NIH-USA grant while working under mentorship with Prof. David A Stevens. His mentorship extends to guiding five Ph.D. scholars, 40 B.Tech project theses, and 10 M.S. project theses. His research outputs include the submission of several hundred partial gene sequences to GenBank, substantial Next Generation Sequencing SRA-data, and a notable presence in protein databases. With over 50 peer-reviewed articles, including book chapters, and more than 10 as a lead author, Dr. Shankar is passionately involved in mentoring students to help them achieve their career goals. His multifaceted contributions underscore his commitment to advancing knowledge in biotechnology and bioinformatics. Prof. Pradeep Verma completed his Ph.D at Sardar Patel University Gujarat, India in 2002. In the same year, he was selected as UNESCO Fellow and joined the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, Czech Republic. He later moved to Charles University, Prague to work as Post-Doctoral Fellow. In 2004, he joined the UFZ Centre for Environmental Research, Halle, Germany as a visiting scientist. He was awarded a DFG fellowship which provided him another opportunity to work as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Gottingen University, Germany. He is also a recipient of various prestigious awards such as the Ron Cockcroft award by Swedish society and UNESCO Fellow ASCR, Prague. He has been awarded Fellow of the Mycological Society of India (MSI-2020); the Prof. P.C. Jain Memorial Award, Mycological Society of India 2020; and Fellow of the Biotech Research Society, India (2021). He is currently working as the Professor (former head and dean, the School of Life Sciences) at the Department of Microbiology, CURAJ. He is a member of various national and international societies and academies. He has completed two collaborated projects worth 150 million INR in microbial diversity and bioenergy. Dr. Maulin P. Shah has been an active researcher and scientific writer in his field for over 20 years. He received a B.Sc. degree (1999) in Microbiology from Gujarat University, Godhra (Gujarat), India. He also earned his Ph.D. degree (2005) in Environmental Microbiology from Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar (Gujarat), India. His research interests include Biological Wastewater Treatment, Environmental Microbiology, Biodegradation, Bioremediation, and Phytoremediation of Environmental Pollutants from Industrial Wastewaters. He has published more than 240 research papers in national and international journals of repute on various aspects of microbial biodegradation and bioremediation of environmental pollutants. He is the editor of 65 books of international repute.
