**Meet the editors**

Dr. Dharumadurai Dhanasekaran is working as an Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, India. He has experience in fields of actinobacteriology and mycology. His current research focus is on actinobacteria, microalgae, fungi and mushroom for animal and human health improvement. He has received the

UGC-Raman Post doctoral Fellowship to visit USA, University of New Hampshire, Durham. He has deposited around 64 nucleotide sequences in GenBank, 5 bioactive compounds in Pubchem, published 89 research and review articles and books on Fungicides for Plant and Animal Diseases and Antimicrobial compounds: Synthetic and Natural compounds. He guided 7 Ph.D candidates and organized several national level symposia, conference and workshop programs. He received major research projects from Department of Biotechnology, University Grant Commission, Indian Council for Medical research, and International foundation for Science, Sweden. He is a life member in Mycological Society of India, National Academy of Biological Sciences and member in editorial boards in National, International Journals, Doctoral committee member and Board of study member in Microbiology. As per the reports of Indian Journal of Experimental Biology, 51, 2013, Dr. Dharumadurai Dhanasekaran is rated in second position among the top five institutions in the field of Actinobacteria research in India.

Dr. Nooruddin Thajuddin is working as Professor and Head, Department of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences and Dean, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, India. He has vast experience in microbial taxonomy, isolation, cultivation, harvesting, extraction of valuable products, and most importantly expertise in employing

molecular tools in the identification and phylogeny of various microorganisms, bioremediation of effluents and bioenergy from Microalgae and Cyanobacteria. He had one-year post–doctoral training on molecular taxonomy and phylogeny of cyanobacteria at the Department of Biology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, USA, through Dept. of Biotechnology (Govt. of India) overseas fellowship. Recently Department of Biotechnology (Govt. of India) sanctioned to a major grant to Prof. N. Thajuddin for the Establishment of National Repository for Freshwater Microalgae & Cyanobacteria. He deposited around 515 nucleotide sequences in GenBank and developed barcodes for 6 indigenous fungi using ITS region. published 242 research and review articles and 3 books on microbiology related topics, developed Germplasm of cyanobacteria, microalgae, bacteria, actinobacteria and fungi in his laboratory, guided 30 Ph.D candidates, acted as doctoral committee member for 142 Ph.D. candidates and currently guiding 8 post doctoral and 8 doctoral candidates on various aspects of microbiology. He organized several national level symposia, workshops, refresher courses and DST-INSPIRE (Govt. of India) Programs. He received major research projects from DBT, DST, UGC and MoES at the tune of INR 4.48 corers. He is a life member of various academic bodies and member in editorial boards in national and international journals. He received Dr. G. S. Venkataraman Memorial Best Scientist Award of National Academy of Biological Sciences for the year 2014. He visited the United States of America, the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Honk Kong, Singapore and Germany to disseminate his expertise and to keep himself abreast of the advanced techniques in the field of Microbiology.
