Dr. Graciela Avila-Quezada is a Professor at the Faculty of Agrotechnology Science, Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, in México. She has been conducting research related to plant pathogens for 30 years, beginning with her undergraduate thesis work focused on the control of Puccinia graminis f. sp. avenae. She was a visiting scientist at the Volcani Center in Israel; Colegio de Postgraduados, Texcoco, Mexico; SENASICA Laboratories, Ministry of Agriculture in Tecamac, State of Mexico; the California Polytechnic State Univ-San Luis Obispo California (Calpoly); Institut de Recherche pour le Développement IRD Montpellier, France; Universidad Autonoma Chapingo, Mexico State; Universidad de Córdoba, Spain. Dr. Avila was President of the Mexican Society of Phytopathology; Vice-president of the National Phytosanitary Advisory Council (CONACOFI); Executive Secretary of the National System for Research and Technology Transfer (SNITT) in the Ministry of Agriculture (Sagarpa); and Director of Academic Cooperation, in the Coordination of Science and Technology, Presidency of Mexico. Besides, she has conducted more than 12 research projects and published more than 70 research papers in national and international journals focused on plant pathogens. Dr. Mahendra Rai is presently a visiting Professor at the Department of Microbiology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland. Formerly, he was Professor and Head of the Department of Biotechnology, SGB Amravati University, Maharashtra, India. He was a visiting scientist at the University of Geneva, Debrecen University, Hungary; University of Campinas, Brazil; VSB Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic, National University of Rosario, Argentina, and the University of Sao Paulo. He has published more than 425 research papers in national and international journals. In addition, he has edited/authored more than 69 books and 6 patents. Recently, he has been featured in Stanford's list of top 2% scientists under Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.
