Rhizotrophs: Plant Growth Promotion to Bioremediation

Dr Samina Mehnaz, PhD Microbiology, is a Professor and Chairperson of Department of Biological Sciences, Forman Christian College (A Chartered University), Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. She is a researcher, in the field of Microbiology since 1991. Her specific area of interest is rhizosphere microbiology, more specifically PGPRs, bioformulations and microbial metabolites. She has been an Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Fellow (Germany), National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Fellow (Canada), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Fellow (Belgium) and a Post Doctorate Fellow (USA). She has 39 research papers published in international journals and four book chapters (as a single author) published by Springer. She is Editor of a book, Bioformutaions: for sustainable agriculture, recently published by Springer, India. She is editor of an international journal, Archives of Phytopathology and Plant Protection (Taylor & Francis, UK). She has reviewed more than 65 research articles for more than 30 International journals and a regular reviewer for Microbial Ecology (Springer) and International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (SGM, UK). She has been a winner of Research Productivity Award (RPA) from 2010 to 2014, awarded by Pakistan Council of Science and Technology (PCST); and a Productive Scientist of Pakistan since 2006, as listed by PCST. In January 2016, She was appointed as Humboldt Ambassador Scientist of Pakistan (A representative of Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Foundation, Germany) by President of AvH Foundation; and currently serving at this position.