Dr. Mohd Tanveer Alam Khan is a Leibniz-DAAD Post-doctoral Fellow at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Gatersleben, Germany. His research focuses on understanding the integrative analysis of low-temperature stress defense responses in Arabidopsis thaliana, particularly in relation to brassinosteroids signaling and metabolite patterns. He earned his BSc, MSc, and PhD from the Department of Botany at Aligarh Muslim University in Aligarh, India. Prior to joining the Leibniz Institute, Dr. Khan worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement at Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, P.R. China. His research aims to dissect the mechanisms of abiotic stress tolerance in plants through engineered signaling, proteomics, metabolomics, and biochemical traits, both in the presence and absence of phytohormones. Over his twelve years as a researcher, Dr. Khan has published more than 34 research articles in internationally reputed journals, with a total impact factor exceeding 50 and 1374 citations. He holds an h-index of 19 and has contributed six book chapters to editions published by Springer. He has received various research fellowships during his PhD and post-doctoral tenure, including the CST-UP-RA, SERB-NPDF, and international PDF at Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China, and the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Gatersleben, Germany. Dr. Taiba Saeed is Assistant Professor in Department of Biosciences at Integral University, Lucknow, India. Dr. Saeed is a young and active academician and researcher working in the field of biotechnology, plant physiology and molecular sciences. She earned her Ph.D. degree from the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. She extensively studied plant tissues culture, medicinal plants, plant signaling pathways, proteomics and metabolomics. After obtaining her Ph.D. degree, Dr. Saeed joined Research Associate position at Biotech Park, Lucknow under DBT sponsored partnership project with IBSD, Imphal for a period of one year. Later, she moved to Germany to work as a visiting scientist at Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Germany. She has published more than 18 research articles in world-renown journals. She has been conferred several research fellowships during her Ph.D. and post Ph.D. tenure such as CST-UP-RA, DBT-RA and international PDF in Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Gatersleben, Germany. Dr. Aqeel Ahmad is a young and energetic researcher, working in the field of stress physiology. He earned his doctoral degree (Ph.D.) from the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan, and performed his research work at the University of Florida, USA. Then, he joined Huazhong Agricultural University as a Postdoctoral Fellow, and now he is serving Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences as Postdoctoral Fellow. He extensively studied plant defense responses (i.e., defense genes, hormones, PR proteins, and biochemicals) against the plant pathogens. His core skills are proteomics (profiling, characterization, and supramolecular kinetics) and metabolomics, by using which he elucidated cell signaling to understand plant defenses, based on oxidative enzymes of the phenylpropanoid pathway. Transcriptomics further strengthened his scientific findings concerning cell responses towards pathogenic invasions and abiotic stresses. He has devised bioactive metabolites (e.g., benzimidazole and bezenedicarboxylic acid) to control plant pathogens and to augment the nutritional quality of our plant-based foods. He has developed techniques to make edible plants tolerant against environmental stressors by reharmonizing their osmoregulatory systems, oxidative machinery, and physiological responses. He has published 59 research manuscripts in world-renown journals and won three research grants and one research honor award at such a young age of 32 years. A wide spectrum of publication platforms is evident from his scientific articles including the leading journals of Food Chemistry, and Chemosphere, etc. His editorial activities in multiple Impact Factor journals have made him a distinctive and progressive figure in the researchers' pool. Qazi Fariduddin is Professor of Botany at Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India where he has been serving as faculty since 2006. He has been extensively working in the field of agricultural biotechnology to explore the abiotic stress tolerance mechanism in plants through physiological and molecular approaches. The findings of his work have revealed that brassinosteroids (BRs) and salicylic acid improved the yield and quality of plants under low temperatures, salt, water and heavy metal stress and could be exploited as a farmer friendly tool to overcome the menace of crop losses due to various abiotic stresses. Moreover, his findings have also revealed the potential role of hydrogen peroxide and polyamines in conferring tolerance to abiotic stresses in crop plants. His lab is extensively using proteomic approaches to reveal the novel pathway protein expressed under various abiotic stresses in plants. He had Visited Göttingen University, Göttingen, Germany for six months under BOYSCAST Fellowship and conducted experiments related to the topic "Molecular studies of salt tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana". He has visited Michigan State University, Michigan, USA on an International Research Project with a specific objective to generate information on "Host target modification as a strategy to counter pathogen hijacking of the jasmonate hormone receptor" (Published in PNAS, 2015). He has published more than 80 research papers in the international journal of high impact factor such as Proceeding of National Academy of Sciences, USA, Food Chemistry, Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, Chemosphere, Journal of Integrative Plant Biology, Environmental and Experimental Botany, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, and many more with total citation of 4925 and h-index of 32. He had presented his findings in various conferences held in USA, Germany, China, and Malaysia etc. He has successfully completed various funded research project from reputed funding agencies. He has also supervised six doctoral students and three MPhil students and a number of Master students and presently five students are enrolled under his supervision for PhD degree. Dr. Mohammad Yusuf is a Lecturer in the Department of Biology at United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, UAE. He earned his Ph.D. in Plant Physiology from the Department of Botany at Aligarh Muslim University in India. Dr. Yusuf has received several prestigious awards and fellowships, including the Dr. D.S. Kothari Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Government of India and the CST-UP Young Scientist Award from the State Government of Uttar Pradesh, India. He worked as a SERB-DST Young Scientist on a Government of India funded project. He has also presented his work at Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, China, and the Gordon Research Conference in Switzerland. In addition to editing three books with international publishers, including Springer Nature, Dr. Yusuf has co-authored several book chapters and has published over 60 research papers in peer-reviewed international journals. His work has garnered more than 5000 Google Scholar Citations with a 37 h-index. Dr. Yusuf's research focuses on exploring phytohormones-mediated abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms in plants through physiological, proteomic, and molecular studies, specifically on proline metabolism.
