Prof. Dr. Karl-Hermann Neumann (22 May 1936 - 13 October 2009) Formerly at Justus Liebig University of Giessen, Germany Dr. Ashwani Kumar, Born (1946) to Mr. Swami Dayal Tewari and Mrs. Shanti Devi Tewari, at Bandikui, Rajasthan, India. He received B.Sc. at Agra University, M.Sc. (Botany) at University of Rajasthan. He was awarded gold medal for standing first in order of merit. His Ph.D. (1971) was under supervision of Professor H.C. Arya and post-doctoral with Professor Dr. K-H. Neumann, and later on with Professor Dr. Sven Schubert at Justus Liebig Universitat, Giessen, Germany, with Alexander von Humboldt Fellow. His botanist father Professor Swami Dayal Tewari (M.Sc. in Botany) was his first teacher. Professor Ashwani Kumar was also selected in Indian Administrative Services (IAS: IPS) (1972) but he opted a career in Botany being his family subject. His wife Mrs Vijay R. Kumar has also been Professor of Botany at University of Rajasthan in herown stead. He was appointed as Asst. Professor in 1969, Associate Professor in 1985 and Full Professor from 1986 to 2007. Then he was an Adjunct Professor until 2016. He along with members of COC introduced Integrated Biotechnology 5 year course in Rajasthan. In recognition of his research contributions, Dr. Kumar was awarded Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for 1977-1979, with several resumption of fellowships until 2017, British Council Visitorship, U.K.(1986); Visiting Professorship at Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University in Japan (1999-2000); Toyama Prefectural University Japan (2011) INSA-DFG visiting Professorship at Germany, 1997. He holds diploma in German language and has certificate in French language. His area of research include photosynthesis in vitro and in vivo, biotic and abiotic resistance, ethno botany, bioenergy and presently understanding salinity resistance in maize. He has also carried outresearch projects granted by UGC, USDA-ICAR, MNES, CSIR, DST, DBT and FACT. He attended large number of national and international conferences as invited speaker, and served as chair or co-chair in International Botanical Conference, Berlin and EU Biomass conferences. He has published 220 research papers in national and international journals and 23 books, of which 10 books are authored and 13 edited from reputed publishers such as Springer and IK etc. He is member of editorial board of Current Trends in Biotechnology and Pharmacy. He has guided 39 research students to Ph.D. at University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India. He is an elected Fellow of Botanical Society, Fellow of Phytopathological Society, Fellow of Indian Society of Mycology and Plant Pathology, Fellow of Mendelian Association, Fellow of Association of Biotechnology and Pharmacology and Fellow of Indian Fern Society. Received V. Puri Medal as Botanist and Teacher's Excellence award of CEE in 2015. He has been a consultant in World Bank Project sanctioned to SPRI-HPPI, President Commonwealth Human Ecology Council (India chapter) and presently President Indian Botanical Society. Dr. Jafargholi Imani (born 1955 in Aliabad-Gorgan, Iran) works as a scientific group leader at Institute for Phytopathology (Justus-Liebig University (JLU) Giessen, Germany). He has graduated in Agricultural Science and completed his Ph.D under supervision of Professor Dr. Karl-Hermann Neumann at JLU. He worked as Post-doctoral fellow in the group of "Plant Tissue Culture and Transformation" at the institute of Plant Nutrition JLU Giessen. Currently he is administrative head of field station and group leader in Plant Tissue Culture & Transformation at Institute of Phytopathology, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Germany. He is continuing scientific works on the Plant Tissue Culture and Genetic Transformation of several plant species. His area of research include optimization of genome editing procedures in plant especially in cereal and RNA-based technologies for pest control in plant production. He also is specialized in mutualistic interaction between many crop plants and soil borne and plant root colonizing fungal endophytes that confers resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses and promotes growth in crop plants. He attended large number of national and international conferences. He has published 108 research papers in national and international journals and author of eight books. He is member of Working Group "German in Vitro Cultures e.V." (ADIVK), International Association for Plant Tissue Culture and & Biotechnology (IAPTC&B), Society for Plant Biotechnology e.V., and Consultant at the EU Marie Curie Chair, Universidade de Évora, Portugal. In addition to teaching and supervising several Bachelor and Master Students in Agrobiotechnology, he has guided 17 Ph.D students at the Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Germany.
