Dr Anita Pandey is currently Professor of Biotechnology at Graphic Era Deemed to be University, Dehradun, India. Previously, she was Scientist at GB Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment, Almora, India for more than two and a half decades. Dr Pandey has extensively worked on Bioprospection of Microbial Diversity of Indian Himalayan region. Her research areas include Extremophiles, Rhizosphere, Biodegradation, Fermented Foods, Water microbes and Antimicrobials. She has been recipient of National Young Woman Bioscientist Award by Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India, New Delhi. She has hosted CV Raman International Fellowships for African Researchers twice.

Dr Avinash Sharma is currently a DBT/Wellcome Trust Fellow at the National Centre for Cell Science, Pune, India. Over the last 10 years of his research career, Dr Sharma has extensively worked on understanding the archaeal and bacterial communities from various extreme environments using modern techniques in microbial genomics. Recently, in 2019, he visited Antarctica to carry out his research project on "Specific adaptations of previously unknown, psychrophilic prokaryotes from Antarctic Environment". He also served as Curator of International Depository Authority at NCCS, Pune from August 2011 to September 2019.