Recent Advances in Distillery Waste Management for Environmental Safety

Dr. Vineet Kumar is presently working as an Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Academic Coordinator at Vinayak Vidyapeeth, Meerut, India. He has obtained his M.Sc. (2010) and M.Phil. (2011) degree in Microbiology from Ch. Charan Singh University, Uttar Pradesh (UP), India. Subsequently, he joined the Department of Environmental Microbiology in 2012 at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU), UP, India, where he completed his doctoral work on the topic "Study of bacterial communities in two step treatment of post methanated distillery effluent by bacteria and constructed wetland plant treatment system". His research work had been supported by the University Grants Commission. He has also received merit certificate for the best academic contribution by Vice-chancellor of BBAU. After completion of his doctoral work in 2018, he joined the Department of Microbiology at Dr. Shakuntala Mishra National Rehabilitation University, Lucknow, UP, India as a Guest Faculty where he has taught courses in general microbiology, microbial genetics, molecular biology and environmental microbiology. He then went to Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India, where he was trained on a DBT-sponsored research project under the supervision of Prof. Indu Shekhar Thakur. His research interests include the exploration of efficient microbe and plant based ecofriendly and sustainable strategies for the biodegradation, bioremediation and phytoremediation of environmental pollutants from contaminated sites. Presently, his research activities are focused on production of biodiesel and the recovery of bioplastic from industrial waste. Dr. Kumar has been also served as a potential reviewer for various scientific journals in his research areas. He has presented several papers relevant to his research areas at national and international conferences. He received a Young Scientist award in 2018 for his excellent contribution to Environmental Microbiology. To date, he has published 12 peer-reviewed research and review articles in high impact journals, 5 edited books, 02 authored books, and authored/co-authored more than 30 chapters in edited books. In addition, he has also authored/co-authored 4 research articles published in conference proceedings and 4 magazine articles on different aspects of bioremediation and phytoremediation of industrial waste pollutants. He is an active member of various scientific societies, including the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA), Kolkata, India, Association of Microbiologists of India (AMI), Lucknow, and Biotech Research Society (BRSI), India. He is the founder of Society for Green Environment, India (website: www.sgeindia.org). Outside the lab, Dr. Kumar enjoys bicycling, gardening, traveling, spending time with family, reading a good spiritual books. He can be reached at drvineet.micro@gmail.com; vineet.way18@gmail.com.

Dr. Pankaj Chowdhary is President of Society for Green Environment (SGE) and currently he is working as Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental Toxicology Group at Indian Institute of Toxicology Research Lucknow, India. He obtained his Ph.D. (2018) in the area of Microbiology from Department of Environmental Microbiology at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (A Central University), Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. During Ph.D. his work has mainly focused on role of ligninolytic enzyme producing bacterial strains in the decolorizing & degradation of coloring compounds from distillery wastewater. His main research areas are Microbial Biotechnology, Biodegradation and Bioremediation of Environmental contaminants in Industrial wastewaters, and Metagenomics. Currently, he is working on synthesis of biochar using various type of lignocellulosic waste. He has edited two International Book entitled "Emerging and Eco-friendly Approaches for Waste Management" & "Microorganisms for Sustainable Environment and Health". He has published many research/review papers in national and international peer reviewed journals of high impact factor published by Springer, Elsevier, Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), Taylor & Francis Group and Frontiers. He has also published many National and International Book chapters & Magazine articles on the biodegradation and bioremediation of industrial pollutants. He has been presented many posters/papers relevant to his research areas in National and International conferences. He is a life member of the "Association of Microbiologists of India (AMI)", and "Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) Kolkata, India".

Maulin P. Shah is an active researcher and scientific writer in his field for over 22 years. He received his Ph.D. degree (2009) in Microbiology from Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar (Gujarat) India. His research interests include Biological Wastewater Treatment, Environmental Microbiology, Biodegradation, Bioremediation, & Phytoremediation of Environmental Pollutants from Industrial Wastewaters. He has published more than 250 research papers in national and international journals of repute on various aspects of microbial biodegradation and bioremediation of environmental pollutants. He has edited 52 books published from Elsevier, Springer, CRC Press, RSC, De Gruyter. He has been presented several papers relevant to his research areas in national and international conferences. He has been also serving as a regular reviewer for various scientific journals in his research areas. He is the Founder Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Environmental Bioremediation & Biodegradation (Science and Education Publishing, USA; from 2011 to 2014) and Journal of Applied & Environmental Microbiology (Science and Education Publishing, USA; from 2011 to 2014). He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Advances in Biotechnology (JBT). He is also the Editor and associate editor of many scientific journals in his field. He is also serving as the member of the Editorial Board of the more than 200 scientific journals published from the reputed publisher.