Plant Genomics and Plant Science

Mr. Muhammad Usman, Former , Government of Pakistan who retired from service after a spotless career of about 35 years with senior level experience on research and development of integrated agricultural production particularly Plant Genomics on a sustainable way. Mr. Usman is basically an agricultural scientist working on the yield and quality of various products and published several research papers. Mr. Usman is consider as the senior most scientist in the world, always participated in the international conferences as a keynote speech, renowned speaker, organizing committee member as well as moderator of the conferences around the world.

Agriculture

Ana Claudia Macedo Vieira has completed his PhD at the age of 36 years from University of São Paulo, Brazil. She is associate professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and coordinates the pharmacobotany Laboratory, which conducts research with galls on sandbank environment, control of drugs and medicinal plants. Develops university extension projects with rational use of medicinal plants and unconventional food plants to farmers. She has published papers in reputed journals of Plant Science, Especially with galls and metabolical changes on host plants, and research with medicinal plants.

Plant Genetics

Dr. Yinghua Huang is a Research Geneticist for U.S. Department of Agriculture and serves as the Lead Scientist for the Plant Genetics Program. Before that, he served as faculty member for Oklahoma State University for ten years and now remains an Adj. Professor at the university. He is a member of editorial boards for several scientific journals. He earned a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Michigan Technological University. His scientific background is in plant genetics and molecular biology, and he has considerable research experience in plant biotechnology, genomics and crop improvement. During his early career, Dr. Huang made a breakthrough in developing a reliable system for producing transgenic larch plant, which represents the first record of genetically engineered conifer tree, carrying the important traits such as resistance to insects and herbicide. Another example of his recent research accomplishments is the systematic evaluation of the US sorghum germplasm collection (> 42,000 accessions), leading to the discovery of important new sources of resistance to greenbug and sugarcane aphids, the most important insects of field crops, including barley, sorghum and wheat, then incorporation of the new resistance into crop breeding programs. Furthermore, using the cutting-edge microarray, RNA-seq and the next-generation sequencing technologies, his lab has generated the differential expression profiles which resulted in the identification of the key genes and the networks that regulate the host defense against insect pests, crop yield traits, and bioenergy quality in sorghum

Plant Genetics, Molecular biology and Microbiology

Dr. Florence V. Dunkel has done his Ph.D in Entomology, from Univ. of Wisconsin – Madison. She also has many honors For her Excellent Teaching and outstanding Research Accomplishments in Management of Grain Quality and Security in World Markets 2004. she also received Charles Lindbergh Grant Award in Anthropology. She also has many keynote presentations in various summits. She also received EXTRAMURAL GRANTS for Teaching.

Research interest of Florence V. Dunkel include plant-based natural products for insect management, particularly related to postharvest ecosystems. Current projects include exploration of Montana wheat varietal resistance to postharvest insects; use of plant-based products with entomopathogenic fungi for management of insects; and use of natural products in the holistic management of malaria in West African (Malian) villages.

Dr. Shigetou Namba works in Department of Agricultural and Environmental Biology, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences in the university of Tokyo.

Agricultural and Environmental Biology, Molecular Plant Pathology

Dr. Stephen K. Herbert researches the stress physiology of photosynthetic organisms. He is especially interested in oxidative stress and the antioxidant systems of chloroplasts and cyanobacteria. The antioxidants of chloroplasts are essential for detoxifying the reactive forms of oxygen that form as a byproduct of photosynthesis. The specific protective roles of superoxide dismutases are the subject of current research. Dr. Herbert earned his Ph.D. with a study of the stress physiology of red algae at the University of Washington, Department of Botany. Following postdoctoral research at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Plant Biology, Dr. Herbert accepted a faculty position at the University of Idaho, where he was assistant and associate professor of Botany. After eight years at Idaho, Dr. Herbert went to the University of Wyoming, where he is now an associate professor in the Department of Botany.

Research interest of Stephen K. Herbert include Principles of Biology, General Biology, Plant Physiology, Biology of Plants and Fungi.

Doctor of Philosophy in Genetics, Purdue University, 1999 Master of Science in Horticulture, Clemson University, 1994 Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, University of Agricultural Sciences in Bangalore, India, 1991

Identifying and characterizing plant genes in nonhost disease resistance Omics approach to understand the disease resistance and susceptibility to cotton root rot fungus (Phymatotrichopsis onmivora) Optimizing or improving virus-induced gene silencing in crops such as sorghum and cassava Identifying and characterizing plant genes involved in Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation Translational research to confer biotic and abiotic stress (drought) tolerance in crop plants. Tnt1 insertion mutagenesis in Medicago truncatula and Brachypodium distachyon

Grace Chen has obtained her PhD from University of Wisconsin at Madison and her Postdoctoral studies from University of California, Plant Gene Expression Center. She has published more than 44 papers in reputed journals and she is globally recognized as an expert on oilseed biotechnology.

Plant Gene Expression Center