Manju Gaare Editor

Santosh Kumar Mishra, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Dairy Microbiology at the College of Dairy Science and Technology at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India. He is currently working in the area of functional foods and dairy products, incorporating live probiotics and technology of functional lactic cultures for fermented and non-fermented dairy products. He has served in the dairy industry as a Quality Assurance Executive at Mother Dairy, New Delhi, India. He is handling several externally funded projects by Indian Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Indian Ministry of Food Processing Industries, and the Indian University Grants Commission as principal investigator or co-principal investigator. He has received several awards for best paper and poster presentations. He is a recipient of junior and senior research fellowships during his master’s and doctoral programs from the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, India. Recently he received an Award of Honor at an international conference sponsored by Partap College of Education, Ludhiana, in association with the International Professionals Development Association, UK. He has published several research, review, and popular articles in national and international journals as well as several book chapters and teaching reviews in various training programs.

Megh R. Goyal, PhD, PE, is a retired professor in Agricultural and Biomedical Engineering from the General Engineering Department in the College of Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico–Mayaguez Campus. He has worked as a Soil Conservation Inspector and as a Research Assistant at Haryana Agricultural University and Ohio State University. He was the first agricultural engineer to receive the professional license in Agricultural Engineering from the College of Engineers and Surveyors of Puerto Rico and was proclaimed as the "Father of Irrigation Engineering in Puerto Rico for the Twentieth Century" by the ASABE, Puerto Rico Section, for his pioneering work on micro irrigation, evapotranspiration, agroclimatology, and soil and water engineering. During his professional career of over 52 years, he has received many prestigious awards. A prolific author and editor, he has written more than 200 journal articles and several textbooks and has edited over 85 books.

Manju Gaare, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Dairy Microbiology at GN Patel College of Dairy Technology, Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University, Dantiwada, Gujarat, India. He received a BTech (Dairy Technology) from the Dairy Science College, KVAFSU, Bengaluru, India; and an MSc (Dairy Microbiology) and PhD (Dairy Microbiology) from the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, India. The same institute granted him junior and senior research fellowships during his master and doctoral programs. He has acquired proficiency in the field of food safety and quality assurance through his industrial, research, and teaching experience. He is a life member of several scientific societies, such as the Association of Food Scientists and Technologists India and the Probiotic Association of India. He has received best poster presenter awards at national and international conferences. He has published book chapters and several research, review, and technical articles in journals, and he holds one patent. At present he is working on novel antimicrobials for food preservation, minimal food processing, and food safety.