Mohammad Irfan, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Research Associate, working in the Plant Biology Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science at the College of Agriculture and Life Science, Cornell University, New York, USA. A well-established researcher with more than 14 years of research experience in plant and agricultural biotechnology with specialization in fruit biotechnology, Dr. Irfan has received many awards that include the Cornell Atkinson Small Grant Award by the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, New York, USA (2022), among others. He has published more than 40 research and review articles and many book chapters. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals and is a review panel member of the Cornell University Schmittau-Novak Integrative Plant Science Small Grants Program and the Boyce Thompson Institute Undergraduate Research Internship Program, funded by the National Science Foundation and the United States Department of Agriculture. He has given talks at many international conferences and organizations located in France, Sweden, Japan, India, and USA. Pankaj Kumar, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Biotechnology at Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Himachal Pradesh, India. He did his postdoctoral studies at the National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi, and at the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, India. Dr. Kumar has eight years of expertise in plant genetic engineering and molecular biology. He has worked on horticultural crops (mainly fruits and vegetables) improvement using biotechnological tools. He has published over 65 research/review papers, contributed over 21 book chapters as well as several popular articles, and edited and authored textbooks. Dr. Kumar has received many awards for his scientific contributions.
