Nanoparticle Interfaces with Plants, the Environment and Human Life

Samuel Ma is currently an associated professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University, College Station. He received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, with a specialization in Environmental Engineering, from Missouri University of Science & Technology in 2004. His expertise is in the fate, transport and impact of various emerging contaminants in both natural and engineered systems. He has over a decade of experiences in studying the transport and transformation of engineered nanoparticles in soil-water-plant systems, and his current interest is in the emerging contaminants of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and micro- and nanoplastics. He is also interested in understanding the role of natural infrastructures in mitigating environmental consequences of major natural disasters such as flooding. He has published over 110 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and has been an invited keynote speaker in several international conferences in this topic. He also has extensive experiences in plant-based water/soil treatment technologies, and ecosystem restoration. His lab applies both experimental investigations and data science to tackle various environmental issues.

Dr. Durgesh Kumar Tripathi is currently an Associate Professor at Amity Institute of Organic Agriculture, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida, India. He is the recipient of ‘Dr DS Kothari Post-Doctoral Fellowship’ of the UGC, New Delhi. Dr. Tripathi has received his D.Phil. in Science from University of Allahabad, India. During this period, Dr. Tripathi worked extensively on phytolith analysis, crop stress physiology, agro-nanotechnology and molecular biology. He has expertise on laser spectroscopy. His research interests encompass stress tolerance mechanisms in plants. Presently, he is working with nano-materials and their interactions with plants to find out their detoxification mechanisms, he is also working on Silicon, Nitric oxide and hormonal crosstalk against abiotic stress in plants.