Devarajan Thangadurai, PhD, is senior assistant professor at Karnatak University in South India, president of theSociety for Applied Biotechnology, and general secretary for the Association for the Advancement of Biodiversity Science. In addition, Dr. Thangadurai is editor-in-chief of several journals, including Biotechnology, Bioinformatics and Bioengineering; Acta Biologica Indica; Biodiversity Research International; and the Asian Journal of Microbiology. He received his PhD in botany from Sri Krishnadevaraya University in South India. During 2002-2004, he worked as CSIR Senior Research Fellow with funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. He served as Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Madeira, Portugal; University of Delhi, India; and ICAR National Research Centre for Banana, India. He is the recipient of the Best Young Scientist Award with a Gold Medal from Acharya Nagarjuna University and the VGST-SMYSR Young Scientist Award of the Government of Karnataka, Republic of India. He has edited/authored 15 books including Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (3 vols.); Genes, Genomes and Genomics (2 vols.); and Mycorrhizal Biotechnology with publishers of national and international reputation. Jeyabalan Sangeetha, PhD, is the UGC Kothari Postdoctoral Fellow at Karnatak University in South India. She earned her a BSc in microbiology and PhD in environmental sciences from Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. She holds also an MSc in environmental sciences from Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. She is the recipient of the Tamil Nadu Government Scholarship and the Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship of University Grants Commission, Government of India, for her doctoral studies. She has published approximately 20 manuscripts detailing the effect of pollutants on the environment, and has organized conferences, seminars, workshops, and lectures. Her main research interests are in the areas of environmental microbiology and environmental biotechnology, with particular emphasis on solid waste management, environmental impact assessment, and microbial degradation of hydrocarbons. Her scientific and community leadership have included serving as an editor of the journal Biodiversity Research International and secretary for the Society for Applied Biotechnology.
