Rice Cultivation Under Abiotic Stress: Challenges and Opportunities

Dr. Sudhakar Srivastava is presently working as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development (IESD), Banaras Hindu University (BHU). He completed his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Botany at the University of Lucknow. He also served as a Scientific Officer at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai from 2009 to 2014. He has more than seventeen years of research experience in the field of plant-metal interactions, with a major focus on arsenic stress responses in plants. He has published 90 research articles and 30 review and letter articles in high-impact international and national journals. He has also received several awards for his contributions, including a Young Scientist Award from the National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI), Allahabad in 2011, Young Scientist Award from Uttar Pradesh Council of Science & Technology (UPCST) in 2013-2014, and Young Scientist Award from the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) in 2015. Dr. Srivastava is also an Associate of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) and Fellow of International Society of Environmental Botanists (ISEB), Lucknow. He is a life member of several societies as well as non-governmental organizations and serves as an Editorial board member of Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, International Journal of Phytoremediation, and Acta Physiologiae Plantarum.

Dr. Kundan Kumar is presently working as an Associate Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology & Science Pilani, K. K. Birla Goa Campus. He completed his Ph.D. in Plant Molecular Biology at National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi, India. He did his post-doctoral studies at University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA and McGill University, Canada from 2009 to 2012. He has more than fifteen years of research experience in the area of Plant Molecular Biology and Stress Physiology. He has published more than 50 publications in International and National Journal of repute. He was recipient of a project under Young Scientist scheme by Department of Science & Technology, India. He is a life member of The Indian Science Congress Association and Society for Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology. He was a reviewer for various International Journals and serves as an Academic Editor for two International journals, Gene and PLOS One.

Dr. Om Parkash Dhankher is a Professor of Crop Biotechnology in the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA. He received his PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from Durham University (United Kingdom) on a prestigious Commonwealth Fellowship and did his postdoctoral studies at the University of Georgia, Athens, USA. He has more than 30 years of experience in research, teaching, and administration and has active international research collaborations. He has published over 120 peer reviewed publications, 4 edited books, 5 international patents, over 150 abstracts & conference proceedings.Dr. Dhankher is a Fellow of the two largest international agriculture societies--Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) and Agronomy Society of America (ASA), in addition to the selected Fellow of the International Society of Environmental Botanists (ISEB), and the Indian Society of Plant Physiology (ISPP)in addition to having received many awards and honors.