Dr. Kambaska Kumar Behera is a distinguished academician and researcher-and has published more than 105 research papers and eight books of international and national repute. Born in Odisha, Dr. Behera studied in Utkal University for his M. Phil and Ph.D. degrees and had the distinction of DBT-Post Doctoral Fellowship. He has worked in different research capacity in various National Research Institute of India viz. CSIR, ICAR and NIT and is presently working as Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Engineering, Gandhi Institute for Technology (GIFT), Autonomous, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. Dr. Sangita Mohanty is a Senior Scientist, Crop Production Division, ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Odisha. She has more than 15 years of research experience in both international and national research organizations. She obtained her master and doctorate degree in soil science and agricultural chemistry from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New-Delhi. She has published more than 60 research articles in high impact journal, book chapters and 4-books of national and international repute. She has been deputed as visiting researcher to University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK with NEWS India-UK Senior fellowship. She has handled more than fifteen research projects as lead and co-investigator and guided several postgraduate and doctoral students in her research capacity in the field of soil nutrient management. Dr. Mohanty has been awarded Nanaji Deshmukh ICAR award for Outstanding Interdisciplinary Team Research in Agriculture and allied Sciences-2020 (ICAR, New Delhi). Dr. Upendra Kumar is a Senior Scientist, ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Odisha. He obtained his master and doctorate degree in Microbiology from IARI, New Delhi and more than 13 years of research experience. He served as visiting Scientist twice at CSIRO, Adelaide, Australia. He published more than 250 research papers, review, book, book chapters, etc., with a cumulative impact factor of more than 200, citations more than 3115, h-index 29. He deposited more than 200 microbial genetic stocks and supervised 17 students and handled 19 internal and external-funded projects and utilized around 20 crores budget. Dr. Kumar developed 12 technologies, among which 3 has commercialized. He established a large-scale commercial biofertilizer production unit at NRRI which has capacity to produce 1.5 lakh litres annually. Dr. Kumar received more than 23 awards; few are Crawford Fund Fellowship, Australia, Lal Bahadur Shastri Outstanding Young Scientist-2020, Nanaji Deshmukh ICAR award for Outstanding Interdisciplinary Team Research and recognitions like Fellow ARRW and AZRA. Ms. Megha Kaviraj is currently working as a UK-India Institute Fellow, in the University of Birmingham, England, UK and was a former SRF at ICAR-National Rice Research Institute (ICAR-NRRI), Cuttack, Odisha. She is pursuing Ph.D at The University of Burdwan, West Bengal, in collaboration with ICAR-NRRI, in the field of microbially driven soil biogeochemistry nitrogen cycle in rice ecosystems. She has qualified ICAR-NET in Agriculture Microbiology and CSIR-NET in Life Sciences for Assistant Professor and has more than 30 publications in the form of research papers, book chapters and research technology. She has bagged many national and international Best Oral, Poster and Young Researcher awards. She is also a member of the British Society of Soil Science and an affiliated member of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Dr. Rajeev Padbhushan is currently working as Assistant Professor-cum-Junior Scientist at Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour (India) with working experience at International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) as Associate Scientist. He has completed his Ph.D in Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry at Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari (India) as in-service research scholar. Dr. Padbhushan has ten years of research experience, has handled several external and institutional projects and guided many undergraduate and postgraduate students. He has published more than 35 research papers and review articles of national and international repute with different awards at national and international forums.
