Prof. T. Pullaiah obtained his MSc and PhD degree in Botany from Andhra University. He was post-doctoral fellow at Moscow State University, Russia, during 1976-78. He travelled wideslyin Europe and America and visted Universities and Botanical gardens in about 17 countries. He joined Sri Krishnadevaraya University as a Lecturer in 1979 and became Profesor in 1993. Hehas held several positions at the university, including Dean, Faculty of Biosciences, Head of the Department of Botany, Head of the Department of Biotechnology, and Member of the Academic Senate. He was President of the Indian Botanical Society (2014), President of the Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy (2013), and a Fellow of the Andhra Pradesh Academy of Sciences. Under his guidance, 54 students obtained their doctoral degrees. He has authored 70 books, edited 40 books, and published over 340 research papers. His book have been published by reputed International publishers like CRC Press, Springer, Elsevier, Wiley Blackwell, Apple Academic press, etc. He was also a member of the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Dr. Niranjan Prasad did his B.E. (Agricultural Engineering) from CTAE, Udaipur (1988); and M. Tech. (1991) and Ph. D. from IIT, Kharagpur (1996). He obtained his post-doctoral training in Smart/Active Packaging from Michigan State University, USA. He worked as Lecturer at NERIST, Nirjuli, Arunachal Pradesh during 1996-97. Later he joined Indian Lac Research Institute, Ranchi as Agricultural Research Service Scientist in 1997 and presently works as Principal Scientist and Head of Agri Bio-resources Augmentation Division at ICAR-National Institute of Secondary Agriculture, Ranchi, India. He is also working as Project Coordinator of the All India Network Project on Harvesting Processing and Value Addition of Natural Resins and Gums. He worked as Consortium Principal Investigator of the National Agricultural Innovation Project (World Bank) on Lac Value Chain. During his 28 years of experience in research and extension, he published 65 research papers in National and International Journals. He has developed several tools and machines for lac cultivation and processing which have been commercialized. Dr. Prasad is a member of several professional societies. Dr. Prasad is the recipient of many awards i.e. ISAE Jain Irrigation Award (1987-88); DST SERC Visiting Fellowship (1999); ISAE Distinguished Service Certificate (2002-03); IINRG Ranchi Certificate of Merit (2004-09); ISAE Commendation Medal 2008-2009; Bioved, Allahabad Fellowship 2012; Fellow of ISAE (2019) and David Foundation Award (2020). Dr. Prasad was also nominated as a member of the Institute Management Committee of ICAR-CIPHET, Ludhiana; ICAR-CIAE, Bhopal; ICAR-NIRJAFT, Kolkata and ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi.
Dr. Lepakshi Md. Bhakshu completed his master’s degree in Botany (1998) from Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, and Ph.D. from the Department of Botany (2002), Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anathapuramu. He has 15 years of teaching and 20 years of research experience in Ethnobotany, Ethnopharmacology, Phytochemical studies, and biodiversity conservation. The author has published 24 research publications in national and international journals, presented 8 research papers in international and national conferences, and participated in 20 national and international symposia besides 20 book chapters. He received the two best posters in the national-level symposium. He worked as a project fellow at EPTRI, Hyderabad, and a co-author of the Proceedings of the National Seminar on the Conservation of Eastern Ghats published by the EPTRI, Hyderabad. He is the recipient of Post-Doctoral Fellow and Dr.DS Kothari National Fellow (UGC) at the University of Hyderabad, Telangana. Presently he is working as an Assistant Professor, the Department of Botany, Dr. YSR Government Degree College, vedukuppam, Chittoor (Dt), Andhra Pradesh, India.
Dr. Mallappa Kumara Swamy is a Professor and Head of the Department of Biotechnology at East West First Grade College, Bengaluru, India. He completed his postdoctoral research at the Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Malaysia. Before that, he had worked as an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Biotechnology, Padmashree Institute of Management and Sciences, Bangalore University, Bengaluru, India. He received his Ph.D. (Biotechnology) from Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur, India, in 2013. He has more than 17 years of teaching and research experience in the fields of plant biotechnology, secondary metabolite production, phytochemistry, and bioactive studies. Dr. Swamy has authored 65 research publications in peer-reviewed journals and 68 book chapters. Recently, he has edited 12 books published by Springer Nature Singapore Pvt. Ltd., Singapore, 1 book by CRC Press LCC, USA, 1 book by Studium Press Pvt. Ltd., India 1 edited book volume by Elsevier, USA. He also served as an Editorial Board Member and Reviewer for several high-impact factor international journals. His current research is focused on cell and tissue culture technology, phytochemistry, phytocompounds isolation, production and their biological evaluation, and nanotechnology for medical applications.