Biofortification of Grain and Vegetable Crops

Dr. Muhammad Tehseen Azhar is working as Associate Professor at the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-Pakistan, where his primary responsibility is teaching to graduate and post-graduate classes. Besides, his focus is screening and development of segregating population resulting in the development of several bulks of cotton with more yield and fibre traits. Dr Azhar has specific interest in the development of cotton germplasm having tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. These advanced strains of cotton have showed good performance for yield of cotton in national traits and those genotypes are suitable for cultivation in high temperature and water stress conditions. Being a Borlaug Alumnus, he worked with various cotton geneticists namely, Dr Richard Percy, Dr Lori L. Hinze and Dr Jame Frelichowsk at Texas A&M University and USDA-ARS, USA. Dr Azhar has completed various research projects funded by Higher Education Commission, Pakistan; CAS-PARB and Cooperation Organization Partnership for Science and Technology, China. Besides, Dr Azhar is Endeavour Alumnus and appointed as Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Plant Biology, UWA. Recently he is appointed as Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Agriculture Sciences, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China. Due to his consistency Dr Azhar is appointed as a Chair (20219-2021) of Germplam and Genetic Stock in International Cotton Genome Initiative (ICGI). He is winner of ASIA Young Scientist Innovation Gold Medal-2023 from International Cotton Researchers Association (ICRA), a sub-committee of International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), Washington.

Dr. Muhammad Qadir Ahmad is working as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan. He earned his PhD degree from the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan, in 2013. Additionally, he gained experience as a scholar at the Genomics and Gene Discovery Research Unit, Western Regional Research Center at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), California. Later, Dr. Ahmad worked as a research assistant at Xuzhou Institute of Agricultural Sciences/Xuzhou Sweetpotato Research Centre, Jiangsu, China, and he now holds the position of adjunct associate professor at this institute. He teaches different courses to undergraduate and postgraduate students of Plant Breeding and Genetics. He is actively involved in field and laboratory experiments, and over a period of time, he has screened wheat germplasm stocks against heat and drought stresses. He has also developed various breeding populations of wheat.

Iqrar Ahmad Rana is Associate Professor at University of Agriculture in Faisalabad, Pakistan. He did his PhD in Applied Molecular Biology of Plants from the University of Hamburg in Germany. During his stay in Germany he learned molecular cloning, invitro regeneration and transformation of cereals. Furthermore, he learned basic techniques in molecular phytopathology. Coming back to Pakistan he started his research group at the Center of Agricultural Biochemistry and Biotechnology (CABB), University of Agriculture in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Since then he has developed disease resistant germplasm in wheat and sugarcane. Dr. Rana successfully developed 'inplanta' transformation replacing tissue culture in multiple crop plants like wheat, maize, cotton, and brassicas. Rana Muhammad Atif is Assistant Professor at Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics at the University of Agriculture in Faisalabad, Pakistan. He also heads the Chickpea Biotechnology Lab at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Agriculture & Food Security, a joint USAID and HEC funded project at University of Agriculture. He was a visiting scientist at "Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Climate Resilient Chickpea? headed by Professor Douglas Cook at the University of California, Davis, USA. His research focuses on breeding grain legumes for abiotic stress tolerance with enhanced nutritional values. For this purpose, he has been employing genomic and molecular approaches for the characterization and development of germplasm. His research programs are supported by Higher Education Commission, Pakistan, Punjab Agricultural Research Board and USAID.