Phytoplasmas: Plant Pathogenic Bacteria - I Characterisation and Epidemiology of Phytoplasma - Associated Diseases

Dr Govind Pratap Rao is working as a Principal Scientist (Plant Pathology) at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. He did his M.Sc (Botany)  and Ph.D. in Plant Virology from Gorakhpur University. He did Post Doc at University of Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA with Prof R.E. Ford on Characterization of Sugarcane mosaic and maize dwarf mosaic viruses in 1994.  Dr Rao has 30 years of research experience on plant pathology especially on plant virology and phytoplasmas. He did significant contributions in characterization of viruses infecting cucurbits, sugarcane, maize and sorghum. He has published over 130 research publications and authored and edited nearly 17 books to his credit.  He has also guided 3 MSc and 12 PhD students on different aspects of plant pathology. He has been worked in different capacities as Scientific Officer, Sr Scientific Officer (Pl Pathology), Head , Div Plant Pathology  and Officer-in-Charge at Research Stations of UPCouncil of Sugarcane Research centres at Seorahi, Gorakhpur and Shahjahanpur from 1987 to 2010. He has been awarded several prestigious awards to his credit. The most important ones are : National Biotechnology Associateship Award (1991-1992), DBT, Govt. of India; Young Scientist Award (1994-1995) from DST, Govt. of India; Overseas BOYSCAST Award (1996) from DST, Govt. of India; President Award, Society for General Microbiology, UK, 1998; Best U.P. Agriculture Scientist Award (UPCAR) ,Govt of Uttar Pradesh in  2002; Vigyan Ratna Award by CST, Govt. of UP for the year 2003-2004; Jin Xiu Qiu Award in 2006 by People's Govt of Guangxi Province,  Nanning, China; Global Award of Excellence, IS 2008, Al-Ahrish, Egypt; Dr. Ram Badan Singh Vishisht Krishi Vaigyanik Puraskar-2014  by UPCAR, Lucknow, India and Leadership Excellence Award in Sugarcane Crop Protection by Thailand Society of Sugar Cane Technologists, Bangkok.

Dr. Rao is Editor-in-Chiefs of Sugar Tech, an international journal of sugar crops and related industries, and Phytopathogenic Mollicutes, an international journal of phloem limited microrganisms. Dr Rao is also Secretary General of Indian Virological Society, New Delhi and member of several prestigious scientific societies and organizations like, APS,USA;  ASM, USA; ISSCT, Mauritius, IPWG, Italy, SSRP, New Delhi and IPS, New Delhi. Besides, Dr Rao has visited over 30 countries as visiting scientists, for invited talk, post doc fellow, research training, panel discussion and for attending workshop and conferences. At present Dr. Rao is working on characterization, epidemiology and management of viruses infected cereal crops, millets and 

 

Nicola Fiore is Plant Pathology Associate Professor at the University of Chile, Faculty of Agronomical Sciences, Department of Plant Health, Santiago, Chile. He is Member of the Sociedad Chilena de Fitopatología, Società Italiana di Patologia Vegetale, American Phytopathological Society, Mediterranean  Phytopathological  Union.  He is invited speaker at many national and international meetings and seminars, member of scientific committees of several international meetings on virology/phytoplasmology, referee for numerous scientific international journals. Awards received: Best work format poster in scientific event: 22^nd International Conference on Virus and other Graft Transmissible Diseases of Fruit Crop (ICVF), Rome, 3-8 June, 2012. He is responsible of the Phytovirolgy laboratory where he is leading a team of about 15 collaborators/students focusing on the diagnosis, epidemiology and control of plant diseases caused by viruses, viroids and bacteria (including phytoplasmas), applying biological approaches and molecular tools. He has elaborated and participated as researcher or director in 20 research projects. He mentored 3 PhD students, 6 Master students and 6 undergraduate thesis students. He maintains consta