Om Prakash Gupta, PhD, received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Ag. & Technology, Kanpur and ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, respectively. He is presently working as scientist (Plant Biochemistry) at ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (ICAR-IIWBR), Karnal.Dr. Gupta has more than 10 years of research experience in the area of Plant Biochemistry and Molecular biology and has significantly contributed in deciphering the role of small RNA during various biotic and abiotic stresses, biofortification, marker development, nutritional and processing quality etc. He has co-developed three genetic stocks and one bread wheat variety suitable for various quality traits. Dr. Gupta has been bestowed with more than 80 publications to his credit which includes 30 research and review papers, 20 book chapters, 4 books, 30 popular articles. He presented his research papers in several national and international symposia/ workshops/ conferences. He has immensely contributed in resource generations through several externally funded projects funded by Indian agencies like DBT & DST, and International agency including CIMMYT. Dr. Gupta is also involved in teaching Fundamentals of Molecular Biology course to PhD students. Due to his immense research contributions, Dr. Gupta has been serving as editorial board members and reviewers of many international journals. Due to his outstanding contribution in research and meritorious profile, Dr. Gupta has the distinction of receiving numerous honors, fellowships and awards in recognition to his excellent academic and research contributions. He is fellow of the Society for Advancement of Wheat and Barley Research (SAWBAR), and received several awards including JawaharLal Nehru Award for outstanding Doctoral thesis by ICAR, University Silver Medal, Aspee Gold Medal and Dr. Kirtikar Memorial Gold Medal, ChowdharyCharan Singh Memorial Award during his Bachelor degree programme. Suhas Gorakh Karkute is a scientist in Indian Council of Agricultural Research. India. He is a graduate in Agricultural Sciences from Dr. Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Agricultural University, Parbhani, Maharashtra. He has been awarded with M.Sc. in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from a prestigious ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi in 2010. He is the recipient of several fellowships and awards in recognition to his performance in academics and scientific career. He has also qualified number of national level competitive examinations such as ICAR-JRF, ARS, CSIR-NET, IARI-Ph.D., JNU-Biotech, IISC-Ph.D. etc. Suhas Karkute has a research experience of more than 6 years since he joined as ARS scientist (Agricultural Biotechnology) at ICAR-Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi. He is also working as Institute Biosafety officer for transgenics projects in the institute for past 4 years. Besides, he has the experience of working as an Examiner of Patents and Designs in Patent Office, Govt. of India for nearly 2 years. During his scientific career at ICAR-IIVR, he is actively involved in several research projects of vegetable improvement. He is working in the area of functional genomics, transgenic development and genome editing with the aim to understand the abiotic stress tolerance in plants. He is also associated with studies on plant bioactive compounds. He has published many original research and review article in peer reviewed international journals and several book chapters and popular articles. He has participated and presented his research work in different national and international conferences/workshops/seminars. He is also contributing as reviewer of many national and international journals.
