Mineral Transformation and Bioremediation by Geo-Microbes

Prof. S.R. Joshi, Professor in the Department of Biotechnology & Bioinformatics, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India , is a microbiologist with more than 36 years of teaching, research and administrative experiences. He has a brilliant academic career of being Gold Medallist in his Bachelor`s and Master`s Programme. He also holds degrees in Bachelor of Education and Computer Applications.  His experience in teaching and research is substantiated by his successful mentoring of 28 research scholars for their Ph.D degree apart from guiding Masters students and Research Fellows from Science Academies of India. His research interests span around exploring microbial diversity from the biodiversity hotspot of Northeast India for their bioprospection as probiotics, bioinoculants, speleothem drivers and bioremediating agents. He has successfully completed more than 20 research projects sponsored by different governmental and corporate agencies which has led to developing starter cultures for fermentation of non-dairy substrates, pilot scale technology for bioremediation of mine areas and bioinoculants for eco-restoration of shifting cultivation fallows, an indigenous agricultural practice prevalent in Northeast India. He has worked extensively in mineral transformations in mining areas, agricultural systems, hot springs, sacred groves and cave environments underlining the role played by microorganisms in these special niches. His administrative experiences include his involvement in academic councils and administrative bodies of different institutions and his parent university. His contributions in scientific committees encompasses his involvement in Science and Technology Task Forces, Scientific Advisory Committees and as Governing Body member of various academic and scientific institutions. He has been decorated with many awards and membership of different science societies and academies. Notable among them are the Fellow of National Academy of Sciences India and Ambedkar Fellowship. Dr. Subhro Banerjee, Assistant Professor in Department of Zoology, SRM University Sikkim, is a microbiologist with 15 years of teaching, research and administrative experiences. After having pursued his B.Sc (Hons.) and M.Sc Microbiology from University of Calcutta, Kolkata and Jiwaji University, Gwalior respectively, he obtained his Ph.D from Department of Biotechnology & Bioinformatics, North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) [A Central University], Shillong. He worked as Junior Research Fellow and Senior Research Fellow under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology project apart from being a DST-PURSE fellow. He carried out his postdoctoral works at Bidhannagar College (Govt. of West Bengal), Kolkata and at NEHU, Shillong on diverse aspects of microbiology and under various funding agencies like Ministry of Food Processing Industries and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment & Sustainable Development. He is also recipient of National PostDoctoral Fellow of Science and Engineering Research Board at Gauhati University, Guwahati. He held a teaching position at Department of Microbiology, Atmiya University, Rajkot and served as Research Manager at MNR Educational Trust, Sangareddy, Telangana, where he motivated the staffs and students of the institute in various research activities and was the coordinator of the Institutional Ethics Committee. He was responsible for developing a new academic program in medical laboratory technology and was appointed as Principal In Charge of Sikkim Professional College of Allied Health Sciences at Sikkim Professional University, Gangtok, Sikkim, where he was conferred with the Best Teacher Award. He has lectured extensively on microbiology, and teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate level courses, apart from guiding in the research work of postgraduate students at SRM University Sikkim. Additionally, Dr. Banerjee is an external expert of Research Advisory Committee and Board of Studies member of various institutes. His research work involves geomicrobiological interactions of the hypogean cave environments in north east India. Presently, his research interests revolve around various fields of environmental, agricultural and medical microbiology. He has authored numerous scientific publications, book chapters and review articles in journals of repute. He is an active member of The Indian Science Congress Association and participated and organized many national seminars and symposium.  Professor Verma obtained his PhD from Sardar Patel University, Gujarat, India, in 2002. The UNESCO fellow (2002) at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, Czech Republic. Later, a postdoctoral (2004) fellow at Charles University, Prague. In April 2004, joined the UFZ Centre for Environmental Research in Halle, Germany, as a visiting scientist. Further, he was awarded a DFG fellowship (2005), which gave him another opportunity to work as a postdoctoral fellow at Gottingen University, Germany. In 2007, he moved back to India and joined Reliance Life Sciences in Mumbai, where he worked extensively on biobutanol production, resulting in several patents. He was later awarded the JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme (2007-2009) and joined the Laboratory of Biomass Conversion at the Research Institute of Sustainable Humanosphere (RISH), Kyoto University, Japan.  Prof. Verma has received several prestigious awards such as the Ron-Cockcroft Award (2005) from the Swedish Society. Prof. Verma embarked on his academic career as a Reader and Founder Head of the Department of Microbiology at Assam University in 2009. In 2011, he shifted to the Department of Biotechnology at Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya (A Central University), Bilaspur as an Associate Professor and served there till 2013. Currently, he is a Professor was formerly served as the Head and Dean of the School of Life Sciences at the Department of Microbiology, CURAJ. He is a member of various National and International societies and academies. Prof. Verma has completed two collaborative projects valued at 150 million INR in the field of microbial diversity and bioenergy. Prof. Verma is a Group Leader at the Bioprocess and Bioenergy Laboratory, Department of Microbiology at the School of Life Sciences in CURAJ. He is a distinguished Fellow awards of several professional organizations, including the International Academy of Wood Sciences (FIAWS-2024), National Academy of Biological Sciences (FNABS-2023), the Association of Fungal Biologists (FAFB-2023), Ranked in the Top 2% of scientists by Stanford University (2022, 2023), Top Scholar by Scholar GPS a California-based company in Bioprocess Engineering (2023), Microbiologist of India, India (AMI-Fellow, 2022), Young Scientist Award, Bioprocess for Sustainable Environment and Energy (YSA-2022) Mycological Society of India (MSI-Fellow-2020), the Biotechnological Research Society of India (FBRSI-2021), and the Association of Microbiological Sciences, India (AMSc-AMI-India-2021). In addition, he received the Bridge Fellow JSPS award in 2022 and conducted joint research work at Kyoto University in Japan. Prof. Verma's expertise is in Microbial Diversity, Bioremediation, Bioprocess Development, Lignocellulosic, and Algal Biomass-based Biorefinery. He has several international patents in the field of microwave-assisted biomass pretreatment and bio-butanol production. Additionally, he has published more than 100 research and review articles in peer-reviewed international journals, with 7802 Citations, and cumulative impact factors of over 473.61. He has an h-index of 46 and an i-index of 115. He has also contributed to 65 published book chapters in different edited books by publishers such as RSC, CRC, Springer, Elsevier, De-Gruyter, and IWA. Furthermore, he has also published 27 edited books in international publishers such as Springer, Elsevier, CRC, IWA, and De-Gruyter. He has also acted as a guest editor for several journals such as Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery (Springer), Frontier in Nanotechnology (Frontiers), and International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (mdpi). Further, Prof Verma has been ranked continuously as the top 2% of scientists by Stanford University in the year2022, 2023 and named Top Scholar by Scholar GPS a California-based company in Bioprocess Engineering, Lifetime #67, and prior 5 years #15, and in Microbiology, #249. Lastly, he is a reviewer for more than 60 journals in different publication houses such as Springer, Elsevier, RSC, ACS, Nature, Frontiers, and MDPI.