Advisory Board and Editors Agricultural Science
Diaa Abd El-Moneim
My academic journey began with an MSc in Plant Breeding and Genetics at Suez Canal University, where my research focused on evaluating drought tolerance and disease resistance in wheat, providing a solid foundation in abiotic stress tolerance. This early work fueled my commitment to understanding and addressing plant resilience under stress conditions. Thanks to an Erasmus Mundus scholarship, I pursued my PhD at Complutense University of Madrid, where I investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying aluminum stress tolerance in rye. Notably, I was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship funded by AECID just before defending my thesis—a pivotal achievement that underscored the relevance of my research. This fellowship enabled me to join the National Center of Biotechnology (CNB) in Madrid. I gained expertise in proteomics, gene expression analysis, and molecular tool development to improve plant abiotic stress resilience. These experiences greatly expanded my knowledge of gene regulation and stress physiology and led to high-impact publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Abd El Moneim’s research encompasses multiple domains, including the study of morphological , physiological, and molecular mechanisms that govern plant responses to stress factors such as salinity, drought , aluminum toxicity, heat, and pathogens. His work in identifying gene families and stress-responsive proteins is complemented by his efforts to apply DNA barcoding and chloroplast genomic assemblies for species identification and development of molecular markers, as well as contributing to taxonomical and evolutionary concepts and identifying transcriptional regulators critical for stress adaptation, with particular emphasis on crops like wheat and wild plants adapted to extreme environments. His methodologies include designing and analyzing field trials , protein analysis, nucleic acid extraction, fingerprinting , GWAS , and the characterization of chloroplast genomes. Dr. Abd El Moneim’s expertise in molecular breeding and genomics focuses on improving abiotic stress tolerance in staple crops, especially for agriculture in developing countries.
Kabindra Adhikari
Kabindra Adhikari is a soil scientist with expertise in pedometrics, soil-landscape modeling, environmental data science and precision agriculture applications. He holds a PhD in Agroecology with research focusing on pedometrics. His research interests include digital soil mapping, pedology, soil sensing, terrain analysis, soil spectroscopy, soil carbon, soil morphometrics, and ecosystem services. He is developing tools and guidelines to promote precision conservation for croplands by coordinating geospatial data streams for the assessment of sub-field cropland productivity, economics, sustainability and environmental impacts.
Tika Adhikari
Dr. Adhikari is a principal research scholar and plant pathologist at the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. His research interests include exploring population biology, genetic mapping, and plant-pathogen interactions, as well as developing molecular tools for pathogen detection. His work also focuses on improving management practices to enhance plant health and mitigate bacterial and fungal diseases in tomatoes and strawberries.
Faheem Ahmad
Dr. Faheem Ahmad is Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology and Nematology in the Department of Botany at Aligarh Muslim University, India. Author of over 40 peer-reviewed publications, his research interests include plant-nematode interaction, mass spectrometry-based metabolomics, nematode management and nematicidal bioagents.
Syed Mudasir Ahmad
Dr. Syed Mudasir Ahmad is a Professor at the Division of Animal Biotechnology, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, India. Dr. Mudasir has done his PhD in Biotechnology from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi and Post-doctorate from the university of California, Berkeley USA. He has more than 15 years of research and teaching experience. He is recipient of several national and international awards and fellowships. The areas of his research include Animal genomics and bioinformatics. He has been working on Animal health and production using omics approaches like transcriptomics, proteomics and epigenetics. The main focus of his research is to analyze gene expression across a wide range of different tissues and cell types from multiple developmental stages. He is using mammalian cell models to understand the regulatory mechanisms for gene expression of both coding and noncoding RNAs and their signaling pathways. He is also targeting Stem cells for tissue regeneration in animals. Dr. Mudasir is the author of many books in the field of his research. He is also editorial board member of several reputed journals.
Juan Alpuche
Juan José Alpuche Osorno is a Biochemistry Professor with experience in bachelor's and postgraduate courses. He is also a life science researcher with management skills and experience at the executive level in Mexican health services and medical faculties. He is looking for a challenging permanent position in a world-class University.
Laboral Experience:
- Vice director 2022- To date. Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Autonoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca. Planning, directing, and managing the activities of management and technical personnel and ensuring consistency of goals, policies, and procedures.
- Coordinator of a Doctorate Program in Health. 2019-2022. Faculty of Dentistry, Universidad Autonoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca. Planning, directing, and managing the activities of management of the program to ensure the achievement of academic and research goals.
- Head of the Laboratory of Biochemistry. 2019-To date. Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Autonoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca. Planning, directing, and managing the activities of the laboratory. With a team of 20 people, they attended +750 students on biochemistry academic and research practices at the bachelor level.
- Professor 2014-2018. National Council of Science and Technology, Mexico. Founding of the Laboratory of Multidisciplinary Studies at the Faculty of Medicine- Universidad Autonoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca. Developing basic and applied research on biochemistry, leading a research team, and getting external funds for three research projects.
- Deputy Director Laboratory of Epidemiological Reference of Yucatan State, Mexico. 2011-2014. Health Secretary and Health Services of the State of Yucatan, Mexico. Planning, directing, and managing the activities of management and technical personnel and ensuring consistency of the laboratory's goals, policies, and procedures with a team of more than 50 people. Positioning the state laboratory in the 13/27th place, starting from 27th in two years in the National Bulletin of Excellence.
Education:
- Post-doctorate in Protein Biochemistry 2007 – 2008. Chemical Faculty- Universidad Nacional Autonoma del Estado de Morelos, Mexico.
- Post-doctorate in Molecular Biology 2008 – 2009. Sciences Faculty- Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.
- Post-doctorate in Comparative Immunology 2009 – 2011. Faculty of Medicine- Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico.
- Doctor of Science 2002 – 2007. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.
- Fisheries Engineer (Food Specialist) 1997 – 2002. Instituto Tecnologico del Mar, Mexico.
Key Scientific Achievements:
- 34 Scientific Research Articles
- 873 total citations
- H index of 11
- I10 Index of 12
- +50 scientific conferences
- 1st place in Oaxaca State Health Research Award.
Rubén Rellán Álvarez
I am an Assistant Professor at the National Laboratory of Genomics and Biodiversity in México since 2015. I did a postdoc in the Plant Biology Department of the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford and a PhD in the Aula Dei Experimental Station in Zaragoza, Spain.
Javier Alvarez-Rodriguez
My research concerns the influence of nutritional and management strategies on livestock physiology and product (milk and meat) quality (sheep, cattle and swine).
Carmen Arena
Carmen Arena is Associate Professor in Ecology at the Department of Biology of the University of Naples Federico II. She conducts researches in the ecological disciplines, dealing with studies concerning photosynthesis and morpho-functional adaptation strategies of higher plants and macroalgae in response to mono and multiple stresses in natural and controlled environments, with applications in ecological, biotechnological and agronomic field.
The research activity holds three main issues:
1) Regulation of the photosynthetic process in higher plants and macroalgae in response to ecological factors in the context of environmental change.
2) Study of plant growth in an extra-terrestrial environment.
3) Plant-soil interactions in natural and anthropized ecosystems.
These researches include a) the eco-physiological response of crop species to light quality; (b) the morpho-functional strategies of plant in phytoremediation studies (c)) the relationship between soil pollution, edaphic communities and photosynthesis in higher plants used in biomonitoring studies.
C. Arena is author of 130 publications peer-reviewed ISI-WoS/Scopus, and participated to more than 150 National and International congresses and workshops, most of them as speaker and invited speaker.
Volker Bahn
I am an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Wright State University. Previously I was a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University working in Macroecology with Brian McGill. My PhD is from the University of Maine in Wildlife Ecology with advisers Bill Krohn and Raymond O'Connor, and MS (German Diplom) in Conservation Biology from Philipps University Marburg with Harald Plachter and Peter Poschlod, in collaboration with Alan Burger from University of Victoria.
Teri Balser
Professor Teri Balser is Dean of Teaching and Learning for the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Curtin University, where she came after having been Dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Florida. She received a Ph.D. in soil microbiology came from the University of California at Berkeley, and she completed postdoctoral research in ecosystem ecology at Stanford University. She is a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, and was recently named to the Australian Research Council College of Experts.
Her research centers on understanding microbial community-level ecophysiological responses to stress, disturbance, and change, and the consequences of these for ecosystem functioning. She has worked in countries worldwide studying restoration, carbon sequestration, invasive species, biodiversity, and land use/land cover.
In addition to international recognition as an accomplished research scholar, Dr. Balser is widely known in higher education as a change agent and leader in Science, Technology Engineering and Math education (STEM). She is a co-founder of the Society for Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER), a National Vision and Change Fellow with the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE), and was a Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Chair to India in 2015 to help build capacity at the national level for pedagogically advanced and responsive STEM education.
Paula Baptista
Paula Baptista is currently Auxiliary Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB), coordinator of the topic "Sustainable Agriculture and Innovative Agro-food Chains" of the “Mountain Research Center” and the convenor of the International Organisation for Biological Control (IOBC), working group ‘Integrated protection of olive crops”. Her main interests are focused on plant-microbe-insect interactions, biological control, plant microbiome and microbial biocontrol agents.