Microbial Diversity and Biotechnology in Food Security

Prof. R.N. Kharwar is currently serving as a Professor in the Department of Botany, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. More than 50 research articles, 3 reviews in international journals and 6 book chapters are to his credit. He is a fellow of MSI and IPS and recipient of Shome Memorial Lecture Award, 2012. His core areas of research include fungal and actinobacterial endophytes diversity, ecology, bioactive molecules, antioxidants and myconanotechnology. Other areas of interest include epigenetic modulations for cryptic and enhanced metabolites production from endophytes. Prof. R.S. Upadhyay received his M.Sc. (1976) and Ph.D. (1980) degrees from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. His main focus on research has been on biological control of plant pathogens, programmed plant cell death in response to pathogens, bioremediation of toxic effluents, induced resistance in plants and their immunization, chitinase production, mycorrhizal technology for reclamation of wastelands, and molecular basis of plant-microbe interaction. He is recipient of five national awards in the area of science, one conferred by the Prime Minister of India. In addition, he has also worked as a visiting scientist to The Royal Society, London, Research Associate of NIH, USA and INSA- JSPS, Japan. Prof N.K. Dubey has significantly contributed to the important area of botanical pesticides. He has formulated several novel plant based preservatives that exhibit significant potency in control of biodeterioration of food from fungi, mycotoxins and insects as well as from lipid peroxidation. He has filed 4 patents, published 170 research papers and review articles, 5 books and is a recipient of several awards including Prof M J Narasimhan award and Young Scientist award. He acted as a Chairperson, Session Coordinator and Key speaker in 9th ICPP 2008, held during Aug 24-29, 2008, Torino, Italy.Dr. Richa Raghuvanshi is Assistant Professor at the Department of Botany, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, since 2005. Her research is focused on microbes as biofertilizers and biocontrol agents in cultivated crops and Indian medicinal plants. She has published 28 research papers, book chapters and also edited one book.