International Journal of Plant Studies

Professor Kshanika Hirimburegama holds the Chair in Botany & Senior Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Colombo. At present she is the Dean of Academic Affairs of the British College of Applied Sciences (BCAS) having taken sabbatical leave from the University of Colombo. She joined the University of Colombo, Department of Botany (now Plant Sciences) as a Senior Lecturer Grade II and after 06 years in her career, at the age of 36, she received a double Promotion on Merit to the grade of Associate Professor.

Prof Hirimburegama having pioneered plant tissue culture research in the University of Colombo in 1990, has authored 50 research publications, 05 books, and 50 communications. 

• Plant biotechnology, Plant biotechnology related plant physiology, Technology transfer to rural sector and rural development through Science & Technology.
• Research & Technology transfer to rural sector for local level industry, i.e. floriculture, electronics.
• University to develop business cells within university to promote research findings and technology to private sector and local industry. Strengthen private-public partnership.
• Funding organizations, NSF to promote research & publications and local industry development with graduates.

Professor, Department of Pharmacognosy& Chemistry of Natural Products –National &KapodistrianUniversity of Athens, Greece. 

Publications: 150; Supervisor of 14Ph. D. theses; 39M. Sc. theses; several diploma theses

Member of the organizing committee of several congresses; Invited Speaker. Referee of many international scientific journals.Member of several Scientific Associations/Societies

• Isolation and structure elucidation of secondary metabolites from higher plants:
   
• Terpenes: Sesquiterpene lactones, iridoids, diterpenes, monoterpene glucosides, triterpenic acids etc.
   
• Phenolicderivatives: flavonoids, phenylethanoid glycosides, simple phenols, lignans, catechins, depsides, proanthocyanidin glycosides, naphthodianthrones, quinones etc.
   
• Essential oils - volatile constituents
   

Therese Shamala Tirimanne is a professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.  She has been a University academic from 1985, having nearly 33 years of experience in Teaching and research.Area of specialization  : Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology.

•   National Awards for Excellence in Agricultural Research - 2014
•   Teaching Excellence Award – Iowa State University – 1991
•   Visiting Scientist Fellowship – International Rice Research Institute - 2009
• Charted Biologist – Institute of Biology of Sri Lanka – Charted Biologist from 2008
• A Life member of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science
• A Life member of the Institute of Biology of Sri Lanka (from 2000)

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• Regulation of Gene Expression, Use of diazotroph bacteria fordevelopment of Nitrogen Bio-fertilizer for rice. Bioinformatics approaches for C4 conversion of rice, Salinity tolerance in rice, Molecular Markers for sex determination, Applications of Bioinformatics in Genomics and Proteomics.
• Investigating ways to reduce cost of agriculture, sustainable agriculture with minimum or no inorganic inputs, enrichment of agricultural soils with bio fertilizer, increasing beneficial micro flora leading to sustainable agriculture.
• Bioinformatics approaches for C4 conversion of rice, understanding dehydration tolerance and salinity tolerance (mainly focusing on rice)

Prof. Sabrin Ragab Mohamed Ibrahim was graduated at 1996 from Faculty of Pharmacy, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt with grade very good with honor. She worked as teaching assistant at the Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Assiut University from 1996 till 2000 at this time she got master degree in pharmaceutical sciences, pharmacognosy. From 2000-2002 she worked as associate lecturer at Faculty of Pharmacy, Assiut University. She worked as Ph.D. student at Pharmazeutische Biologie Institute der Universität Heinrich-Heine, Düsseldorf, Germany from 2002 till 2005. At this time, she got the Ph.D. degree with grade excellent under supervision of Prof. Peter Proksch. From 2005 till 2010 she worked as assistant professor at the Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Assiut University. After that she worked as associate professor at the Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Assiut University from 2010 till 2016. Currently, she worked as Professor at the Department of Pharmacognosy and Pharmaceutical chemistry, College of Pharmacy, Taibah University, KSA and Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Assiut University

• Isolation and identification of bioactive constituents from different natural sources including plants, marine, bacteria, and fungi.
• Different chromatographic techniques such as TLC, CC, VLC, GC, and HPLC.
• Structure elucidation of natural products using different spectroscopic techniques e.g. UV, IR, MS, 1D, and 2D NMR.
• Macro- and microscopical characterization of medicinal plants.
• Biological evaluation  of natural products.

Dr. Amal Kanti Paul is currently working as Professor in the department of Botany at University of Calcutta, India. Paul has completed his Ph. D. in Science (Botany) and M. Sc. Botany (specialization in Microbiology) at Burdwan University. His research work is published in renowned publications. He has written many books and book chapters. He is the Vice-President of Indian Mycological Society, Kolkata. He was an invited lecturer and Visiting Professor, Department of Biotechnology, University of Yangon, Myanmar.

• Production of antifungal antibiotics from soil actinomycetes and development of high-yielding strains of antifungal antibiotic producing Streptomyces sp.   Physiology and biochemistry of polyhydroxyalkanoic acids (PHA) synthesis by heterotrophic and autotrophic bacteria, their intracellular utilization and enironmmental degradation.
• Microbial diversity of metallophiles from anthropogenic and geogenous (serpentine) environments and their interaction with heavy metals for bioremediation and metal prospecting.
•  Exploring the diversity of moderate and extreme halophiles from hypersaline environments for production of intracellular and extracellular biopolymers of commercial importance.

Amine Elleuch received the Engineering Degree from the National School of Agronomic Science in Tunis (Tunisia) and MS Degree in molecular Biology from the Faculty of Science of Tunis. He has a Ph. D. from the Faculty of Science of Tunis in Biological Science in 2004.  

He joined the Faculty of Science of Sfax as Assistant Professor Genetics in 2003 and he became an Associate Professor in 2006 at the Faculty of Science of Sfax.

He was the Project coordinator of the project SMOT, which is part of  the ENPI CBC Med Program.

•  Plant biotic and abiotic stresses
•  Detection and molecular characterization of viroid.
•  Studies of viroid-host interactions.
•   RNA biology.
•  Biological, Biochimical and Molecular impact of Heavy metals on plants
• Plant genomics and molecular biology

Dr.Devendra Singh Negi is currently working as Professor in the department of chemistry Garhwal University Uttarakhand , india. Negi  has completed his Ph.D in chemistry and M.Sc. organic chemistry at HNB Garhwal University.  His completedfour major projects from UGC UCOST and DST in the various areas of Natural Products Chemistry.Visiting Professor in Germany at Technical University, Braunschweig, Institute of Organic Chemistry as DFG Bonn Germany. Administrative experience :Pro Vice Chancellor, Assistant Dean of Student Welfare, NSS Programme Coordinator,Deputy Controller of Examination,Coordinator DST- FIST. he was awarded Commonwealth Fellowship for UK and Fulbright Scholar at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio USA and also awarded  CICOPS Fellowship  of Italy.

• On the isolation and structure elucidation of bioactive natural   products from medicinal plants.

• A number of flavonoids, triterpenoids with potential biological activities have also been reported from terrestrial plants (Planta Medica, Fitoterapia, Pharmazie). 

• exemplified by research on insecticidal coumarins from Boenninghausenia albiflora with applications against important insect pests like Plecoptera reflexa, Clostera cupreata, Crypsiptya coclesalis.

SANJAY MOHAN GUPTA did his PhD degree in Biochemistry in 2007 from University of Lucknow, Lucknow and worked on genetic manipulation of banana fruit ripening. He has isolated and characterized ethylene regulated and ripening related 27 novel genes from banana pulp tissue by differential-display (DDRT-PCR) method. Presently, he is working as Scientist-D in DIBER, Haldwani and involved in research project investigating the antifungal and antioxidant activity of different leaf, seed extract and seed oil of Camelina sativa and stinging plants against various pathogenic microorganisms. He has published more than 50 research papers in leading national and international journals. He has 65 accession numbers of various genes submitted to NCBI & EST database in his credit. He is a co-author of 03 books and 14 chapters in the field biotechnology. He has delivered various invited lectures/presentations in the national and international symposium/conferences. He has been awarded with “Laboratory Scientist of the Year -2010” by DRDO. Recently, he has also been awarded the “National Technology Day-2015” by DRDO.

• Plant Tissue culture and genetic transformation techniques
• In vitro plant regeneration and Agrobacterium mediated genetic transformation techniques of plants.
• Bioinformatics analysis
• Molecular biology techniques
• Physiochemical techniques

Dr.S.Maqbool Ahmed is currently working as Head & Associate Professor of Botany in the Department of Botany, Maulana Azad National Urdu University (Central University), Hyderabad, India.  He is the Chairman of the Board of Studies of Botany. He has completed his M.Sc Botany and Ph.D from Barkatullah University, Bhopal.  He has published number of Research papers in the Journals of National and International level repute.  He has written three books and book chapters.  He has received two research grants from UGC and ICSSR.  He has undertaken various Academic and Administrative responsibilities in the University.  He has worked as Officer on Special Duty-Exams, Coordinator of Overseas, Coordinator of Horticulture and coordinator of various schemes of UGC.  He is having 27 years of teaching experience and his area of Specialisation is Plant Physiology, Ecology and Environmental Science.  He has visited Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on official visit.

•     Allelopathy and Extraction of Allelochemicals
•     Mushroom cultivation and technology
•     Undertake floral survey by identifying at species level
•     Understanding of Ecological system and Biodiversity

Dr Hafiz Suleria is an eminent young researcher in the field of Food Science and Nutrition. Currently, working as “Honorary Fellow” in the Diamantina Institute - Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia. He has earned his “Postdoctoral Research Fellowship” from the Department of Food, Nutrition, Dietetics and Health, Kansas State University, USA.He has a major research focus on food science and nutrition particularly in screening of bioactive molecules - isolation, purification and characterization using various cutting-edge techniques from different plants, marine and animal sources followed by their in vitro bioactivity, in vivo, cell culture and animal modelling. He did quite reasonable work on functional foods & nutraceutical, food and function and alternative medicine.

• Functional Foods
• Bioactive molecule research
• Marine Bioactives
• Medicinal Plants
• Natural Product Chemistry and Drug discovery

A. Mujib,Ph.D, a DAAD fellow (Germany), now associated with Department of Botany, School of Chemical and Life Sciences, Hamdard University, New Delhi, India. He got M.Sc and Ph. D degree from the University of Kalyani, W.B (India). Appointed and served earlier as Research Associate and Mission Engineer in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology(IIT), Kharagpur

Published around 110 articles which include four books, research papers and review articles of International repute with impact factors and book chapters. Reviewing  research articles for about 60 International Journals, on member of editorial board of over 25 International Journals and advisor/ supervisor of 15 Ph. D students.

 His research interest includes callus /tomour cells, regeneration, tissue engineering, growth regulators, plant based regenerative medicine/drug in vitro (somatic) embryogenesis, gene expression

• Plant (somatic) embryogenesis, gene expression;
• proteomics, in vitromutagenesis and crop improvement; chromosomal / cytogenetics of plants,
• molecular-flow cytometric DNA analysis of plants/ regenerants;
• enhancement of secondary compounds /alkaloids using biotic,
• abiotic stress and other modern biotechnological approaches.

Dr. Mushtaq Ahmed is currently serving as Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences in the Central University of Himachal Pradesh. He obtained his doctoral degree in Botany from the prestigious Banaras Hindu University (BHU). He started his career as Assistant Professor in the Department of Botany (Centre of Advanced Study), Institute of Science, BHU in 2005. The area of his research is Environmental Microbiology and Biodiversity conservation.  

• Environmental Microbiology
• Biotechnology,
• Biodiversity,
• Microbial Ecology

President Chen obtained PhD in 1999 at Kaohsiung Medical University. Currently teaches in Fooyin University, as most young is also the most senior professors and deans. The past 20years, he has his scientific interests focused on life-threatening diseases, including traditional Chinese medicine used for cancer research. Analysis in recent year’s major active ingredients such as ginger, pepper and cinnamon used in gastrointestinal cancer, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiparasitic, and other topics. President Chen specializes in isolation, purification and structural analysis of active components of plants. President Chen directed against active constituents of oral cancer, liver cancer, and rectal cancer. President Chen was just over 45years old, but his work has more than 220papers, Taiwan one of the young talents. Professor Chen was invited more than 170kinds of Journal editorial boards. Professor Chen won numerous awards at home and abroad, from 2015, was awarded the lifetime achievement award; from 2016 was awarded the health care & biotechnology merit award. 

• Pharmacognosy
• Natural Products
• Chinese Medicine
• Natural Product Research

Dr. Majid Abdoli is member of Young Researchers and Elite Club, Zanjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Zanjan, Iran. He has obtained B.Sc. from Zanjan University of Iran in Agricultural Engineering (field of Agronomy). He also has obtained M.Sc. course in Agronomy (field of Crop Physiology) at Razi University of Iran and has worked on the role of current and storage sources in grain growth stage on yield formation of different bread wheat cultivars of Kermanshah province. Also, Dr. Abdoli her Ph.D. thesis research has passed in Crop Physiology at the University of Maragheh in Iran on the evaluation of approaches to improvement the grain quantitative and qualitative of wheat by using zinc in calcareous soils. He during of education has achieved the third rank in M.Sc. and first rank in Ph.D. Also, he has published several manuscripts in international and national journals. Dr. Abdoli is reviewer for several national journals and he has published near of 25 manuscripts in international and national conferences. He has a record of one book with title maize and its technical guidelines of cultivation.

• Chemical defense mechanisms and antioxidants in plants
• Physiology of seed germination
• Plant nutrition with nutrients
• Biofortification strategies to increase grain zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe)
• Yield change plant to plant growth regulators (PGRs) such as IAA
• Morpho-anatomical and physiological responses plant to abiotic stresses (such as Salinity, Water stress, Drought and etc.)