Advisory Board and Editors Plant Science

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Luigi Gennaro Izzo

Dr. Luigi Gennaro Izzo is a Researcher in Environmental and Applied Botany at the Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II. He contributed to several research projects funded by the Italian Space Agency and the European Space Agency, carrying out studies in the framework of plant-based Bioregenerative Life Support Systems. Dr. Izzo's current research activities mainly focus on: plant responses to the different characteristics of light; plant tropisms in altered gravity conditions; reproductive biology in altered gravity conditions.

Mukesh Jain

Dr. Mukesh Jain is presently associated with Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, as Professor. Before this, he served at the National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi as Staff Scientist. Dr. Jain’s research interests include understanding the transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of abiotic stress responses and seed development using advanced state-of-art multi-omics technologies.

Shalu Jhanwar

Dr. Jhanwar’s research interests lie at the interface of epigenomics, genomics, bioinformatics, and machine learning. She has extensive experience in plant and animal sciences, development biology, and cancer genomics and epigenomics. She has developed machine learning-based tools and bioinformatic analysis pipelines integrating genomic and epigenomic information. In the past, she has identified biomarkers differentiating wild and cultivated varieties of plants using comparative genomic approaches. Upon integrating transcriptomics and chromatin accessibility, presently she is studying the regulatory dynamics underlying structural diversity during organogenesis.

Charles D Johnson

Dr. Johnson earned his BS and PhD from Texas A&M University, with an intermediate MS degree from Clemson University. He completed a postdoc at the University of Louisville, leading to his role as associate director of bioinformatics for the Center for Genetics and Molecular Medicine at the same institution. He played a foundational role in creating the statistics and bioinformatics division at Ambion/Asuragen Inc. Following this, Dr. Johnson founded BioMath Solutions LLC, a bioinformatics-focused startup specializing in software development for genomic technology firms.

Presently, Dr. Johnson serves as the Director of Genomics and Bioinformatics Service at Texas A&M AgriLife.

Hironori Kaminaka

Associate Professor of Faculty of Agriculture, Tottori University, Japan; Past Postdoctoral Fellow of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA; Past postdoctoral Fellow of National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Japan; Ph. D. obtained in Kyoto Prefectural University, Japan.

Julia Kehr

Professor Hamburg University, Germany
Professor Politechnic University Madrid, Spain
Group Leader Max Planck Institute Potsdam, Germany

Mather A Khan

Dr. Mather A Khan is a Senior Scientist at the Institute of Botanik, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany. Before moving to Germany, Dr. Khan worked as a Postdoctoral fellow and then as a Research Scientist at the University of Missouri-Columbia, USA.

Dr. Khan’s research interest is mainly focused on understanding the mechanisms mediating the uptake and accumulation of essential (Iron, Fe; Zinc, Zn) and toxic metals (Cadmium, Cd) in plants. He is using state-of-the-art techniques including cell-specific transcriptomics, functional genomics, and ionomics to understand how plants take up, distribute and accumulate micronutrients and toxic elements within plant tissues, including seeds. During his stay at the University of Missouri, Dr. Khan discovered that leaves seem to sense the Fe status of the whole plant before roots that in contrast to the traditional view of nutrient sensing by plant roots. His research suggests that leaves integrate signals from different tissues and relay the information on the Fe status to roots to trigger, or not, an Fe deficiency response (i.e. increased Fe uptake).

He joined the Institute of Botanik, Heinrich Heine University in January 2021, where his research continues to explore the seed loading mechanism of Fe and Zn and develop strategies to optimize crops for higher protein and nutritional value which are essential for future agriculture production to ensure food security and reduce malnutrition and poverty.

Shahryar F. Kianian

Research Leader, USDA-ARS Cereal Disease Laboratory. Previously, Professor of genetics and plant improvement, Department of Plant Sciences, North Dakota State University. Faculty of Cellular & Molecular Biology and Genomics interdisciplinary programs. Recipient of 2002 Yaggie Excellence in Research Award, 1989 Withaker Prize, and 1984 Gerard Award.

Stanislav Kopriva

Professor for Plant Biochemistry at University of Cologne

Ravindra Kumar

Dr. Ravindra Kumar is a Senor Scientist (Plant Pathology) at Crop Protection Division, ICAR-Indian Wheat and Barley Research Institute, Karnal-132 001 (Haryana). He obtained his M.Sc. (Ag.) and Ph.D. (Ag.) from the Department of Mycology and Plant Pathology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi in 2007 and 2010, respectively. He was selected as ARS Scientist in ICAR, New Delhi in ARS-2009 batch. His areas of research interest include Host-Pathogen Interaction, Fungal Pathology, Biological Control of Phytopathogens, Mycology, Seed Pathology, and Plant Disease Management. He has published more than 32 research papers and reviews in reputed national and international journals, and has more than 50 technical and popular articles to his credit. He has also written two text books on plant pathology.

Dr Ravindra Kumar has excellent scientific writing and editing skills. Recently he edited book entitled as "Seed-Borne Diseases of Agricultural Crops: Detection, Diagnosis & Management" published by Springer, Singapore. He has edited several technical bulletins and annual reports. He has been associated with several professional/research societies of national and international repute.

Imren Kutlu

Dr. Imren Kutlu received her Ph.D. in quantitative genetics from Eskisehir Osmangazi University of Eskisehir- Turkey, in 2012. She worked as a research assistant in the Agricultural Faculty in Eskisehir Osmangazi University–Turkey between 2007-2019. Following this, Dr. Kutlu became Associate Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Agricultural Faculty, Field Crops Department.

During her Ph.D. she was skilled with quantitative genetics of cereals crops and applying in breeding of cereal yield and quality. In addition, she studied about agronomical techniques of cereals and legumes cultivation. In her postdoctoral studies, she focused on molecular genetics techniques, which helped her study molecular breeding of cereals crops, particularly for abiotic stress tolerance.

Since 2019. Dr. Kutlu has been researching plant molecular genetics, breeding for cereals crops under the different abiotic stress and supervising graduate/undergraduate researchers.

Generally, her research interests focus on the expression of abiotic stress-responsive genes and proteins, physiological and molecular mechanisms of the abiotic stress response, and tolerance. She also studies the effects of organic and inorganic molecules required for plants to coordinate stress responses under various abiotic stresses.

Blanca B. Landa

EDUCATION:

Ph.D. Agricultural Engineer, Institute of Sustainable Agriculture, CSIC, and University of Cordoba, Cordoba, Spain. July, 1999.

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Population biology and biogeography of soilborne pathogens and biocontrol angents in the rhizosphere. Integrated control of plant pathogens; Rhizosphere microbial ecology; Biocontrol; Molecular diagnosis; Metagenomic analysis of microbial populations.