Mandira Kochar Editor

Dr. Sunil K. Deshmukh is Scientific Advisor to Greenvention Biotech, Uruli-Kanchan, Pune, India and Agpharm Bioinnovations LLP, Patiala, Punjab, India. Veteran industrial mycologist who spent a substantial part of his career at Hoechst Marion Roussel Limited [now Sanofi India Ltd.], Mumbai, and Piramal Enterprises Limited, Mumbai, in drug discovery. He has also served TERI- Deaken Nano Biotechnology Centre, TERI, New Delhi, and Adjunct Associate Professor in Deakin University, Australia. He has to his credit 8 patents, 140 publications, and 16 books on various aspects of fungi and natural products of microbial origin. He is a past president of the Mycological Society of India (MSI). Dr. Deshmukh serves as a referee for more than 20 national and international journals. He has approximately four decades of research experience in getting bio-actives from fungi and keratinophilic fungi.

Dr Mandira Kochar has a PhD Degree in Genetics from Delhi University alongside extensive research experience over the past 17 years focused on Molecular Microbiology, Microbial Physiology and Genomics to support thematic areas of Agriculture and Environment Sustainability. Her research work over the last decade has concentrated on the genomics, molecular and functional interactions of plant growth regulators crosstalk in plant-associated bacteria and symbiotic interactions with plants. Since 2011 she has been independently leading research projects in TERI’s Sustainable Agriculture Division and leads the team on Nanobiotechnology interventions for sustainable agriculture and environment. She works on nano agri inputs, carbon nanomaterials for agriculture and enzyme nanocomposites for environment remediation. Besides these areas her work is also focused on delivering unique advanced biological solutions towards achieving sustainability for agriculture. She has published 27 peer reviews paper/ review articles / book chapters including one in Science. She is a regular reviewer for many Springer and Elsevier Journals.

Dr Pawan Kaur, obtained her M. Tech. and PhD in Nanoscience & Nanotechnologyand now working as Faculty of Agriculture as well as Program Coordinator at Shri Vishwakarma Skill University, Gurugram. Her current research involvements are biosynthesis of nanopesticides using indigenous resources; development of nanomaterials from bio-waste and natural mineral sources; eco-friendly nano-carriers for smart and efficient delivery of bioactives; nanoparticles for postharvest management.

She was also worked as a scientist at Teri-Deakin Nanobiotechnology Centre, TERI Gram, Gurugram and actively involved in development of polymeric nano-based smart delivery system for agricultural applications. Her additional activities included development of novel biological approaches for the synthesis of nano pesticides and nano fertilizers and guiding PhD students of Deakin University, Australia for their PhD work. She has more than 10 years of research & teaching experience. Her work has been published in over 30 research papers in reputed international journals, 3 book chapters and 2 edited books (Springer Nature Publisher). She is also a member of editorial boards and also acts as an invited reviewer for several reputed journals.

Dr. Pushplata Singh received her Ph.D. degree in Genetics from Delhi University, India in 2006. She has more than 15 years of post-PhD research experience. She presently works as a Research Coordinator in multiple arenas of interdisciplinary Sciences in TERI, New Delhi. With a PhD in Human Genetics and Genomics and Post-Doctoral experiences in Genomics of human disease, microbes and plants and industrial experience in development of advanced nanomaterials, she has the ability to collaborate with disparate partners to drive alignment on business objectives and deliverables to achieve closure in a set time frame. As a member of TERI team, her role in defining guidelines for the Govt. of India for safety assessment of NanoAgriProducts has been appreciated. She has independently established two facilities in TERI: Facility for Genomics and big data Analysis; and National facility for safety assessment of nano agro-products. She is an active member of ―Asia Nano forum‖ and ―EU- Asia forum‖. She has published 24 peer reviews paper/ review articles / book chapters.