Biochar Ecotechnology for Sustainable Agriculture and Environment

Abhay Kumar is a Researcher at the University of Tuscia's Department of Innovation in Biological, Agri-food, and Forestry Systems (DIBAF) in Viterbo, Italy. He earned his doctorate in Plant Sciences from the University of Hyderabad in India and spent more than five years as a visiting scientist at the Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center in Israel. In addition, he was involved with two other science-led organizations in Norway, Standard Bio AS and Capturebank AS. He conducts multifaceted and cross-disciplinary environmental and agricultural research on the interactions of Biochar-Soil-Plant-Environment, as well as remediation and recovery of trace heavy metals from contaminated areas. His research efforts are focused on generating carbon-negative, resource-circular biochar and biochar-containing products from diverse agricultural and environmental aspects. These include soil fertility, soil organic matter, carbon sequestration, crop production, key physiological, biochemical, and metabolic processes, abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms in plants, and pollutant cleanup from contaminated locations. His aptitude towards research have resulted in several articles in major journals and books. This honor is bolstered by his work with some journals as a review/guest editor as well as his extensive peer-reviewed record in high-impact journals. Dr. Prasad is Emeritus Professor, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad (India). He has made outstanding contributions to the fields of bioremediation, bioresources, biomass energy sources, bioeconomy, and to the broad field of environmental biotechnology, all of which are his main areas of expertise. Dr. Prasad has served the Government of India’s Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change as a member of various advisory committees on biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, pollution control and abatement, environmental information systems and bioremediation of contaminated sites. He is an active visiting scientist for several international universities. Pallavi Kumari is currently employed as a Researcher at the Centre of Polymer and Carbon Materials of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She earned her doctorate from the Central University of Jharkhand in India in 2017, and she began her scientific career in the field of Material Science and Nanotechnology. She moved to the Indian Institute of Technology, Varanasi in India, to pursue her postdoctoral research on the synthesis and nanotechnological characterization of bio-based materials for industrial and agricultural application, and then to the Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center in Israel. Pallavi has also worked as a researcher for the Norwegian firm Capturebank AS, exploring nanotechnological application of developing biochar and biochar-based products for agricultural, agro-industry, and environmental applications. Dr. Kumari's research has given her independent thinking, multidisciplinary research skills, and a good profile in material chemistry, nanotechnology, and polymer science, specifically the synthesis of bio-based nanocomposites materials, and the current book proposal effectively integrates these cross-disciplinary aspects. Manoj Kumar Solanki is currently employed as a scientist in the Institute of Biology, Biotechnology, and Environment Protection of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. In 2006, he received his master’s degree in microbiology from Barkatullah University, and in 2013, he received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from Rani Durgawati University in India. He also served as a research associate in a DBTfunded project at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India. He received a visiting scientist fellowship from the Guangxi Academy of Agriculture Sciences in China from 2013 to 2015, as well as a visiting scientist fellowship from the Volcani Center, Agricultural Research Organization in Israel from 2016 to 2020. He has been involved in numerous research activities on plants-microbes interaction, soil microbiology, plant disease management, enzymology, and microbial genome analysis during his research career, and has published a number of publications in prestigious peer-reviewed international journals and books. He is also expanding his knowledge of agriculturally significant microorganisms, with a focus on soil and crop health management, among other things as well as worked as associate/guest editor for various journals and has sound expertise in editing books and reviewing articles.