Dr. R. L. Misra served the cause of floricultural science for more than 16 years in temperate regions of Himachal Pradesh and about 24 years in sub-tropical conditions of New Delhi. After his joining at IARI, New Delhi in 1984, he was associated with all the 7-8 floricultural courses being offered to the M.Sc. and Ph.D. students, apart from looking his mandated research programmes. He developed 30 gladiolus varieties which have high demand countrywide. He has in all some 500 publications including 6 books. Once he was Officer-in-Charge, Indo-Israel Project on Research and Development on Farms, IARI, New Delhi which confines to the protected cultivation of vegetables and flowers; and joined as a regular Project Coordinator of All India Coordinated Research Project on Floriculture of ICAR at Division of Floriculture and Landscaping, IARI, New Delhi, where he coordinated some 21 centres across 17 states. He served IARI for 40 years and retired as Project Coordinator cum Principal Scientist in May 2008. Only because of his highly significant contributions in the field of teaching and research, after his retirement he was inducted as adjunct Faculty of IARI in Floriculture.

Dr. Sanyat Misra is a graduate from UAS, Bangalore; postgraduate from G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar; and Ph.D. from Dr. YSP University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan (H.P.), and then after completing his Ph.D. degree served for 3 years as Research Associate at NBPGR, New Delhi and Shimla, and in 2004 joined as regular Scientist cum Assistant Professor (Floriculture) in the Department of Horticulture, Birsa Agricultural University, Kanke, Ranchi (Jharkhand). So far he has guided three M.Sc. students for their thesis work. He is a very active member of the horticulture faculty looking after research, teaching and extension. He has to his credit about 20 publications, two bulletins and three books of international repute.

Dr. M.L. Chadha, has served as Director, Africa and South Asia of AVRDC-The World Vegetable Centre during 1997 to 2011. He has been coordinating and networking AVRDC vegetable research and home garden programmers for over 20 years, in Africa and South Asia. Before joining AVRDC, Dr. Chadha had worked for 17 years in India in the improvement of vegetable crops, seed production and home gardening. A fellow of NAAS, the Founder Fellow, and Vice President of the Horticulture Society of India. Presently, he is Chairman, Madan Chadha Safe Healthy Vegetable Foundation.

Dr. Debasish Kundu a Ph.D in Spagyric Homeopathy from an American University is a renowned authority on Complementary and Alternative Medicine(CAM), he is a Visiting Professor of Khulna Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital, affiliated to Ministry of Health, Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, Vice President of American Nutritional Medical Association, CA, USA, and International Homeopathic Medical Society, USA, and Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Homeopathy and Natural Medicines, Science Publishing Group, USA, Editor-in-Chief, The Internet Journal of Herbal and Plant Medicine, USA. He has also authored and edited numerous books and journals on CAM, Sexology and Homeotherapeutics.

Dr. Malik A.K. Awan is a leading personality of natural health movement in USA, he is a renowned scholar in Psychology, Homeopathy/Holistic Medicine and Religious Studies. He is also a Doctor of Common Law and CEO/President of American Nutritional Medical Association, USA, International Holistic Medical Society, International Homeopathic Medical Society. He has edited many journals and authored many books and articles on Natural Medicine. He is a laurate, Albert Schweitzer Award for Medicine.

James O. Fajemiroye, Ph.D., was born and brought up in a community where medicinal plants usage was a daily experience. He conducted ethnobotanical survey of Ilorin Emirate while working as industrial trainee under a renowned horticulturist, Mr. Anthony Okulaja. He furthered his education by taking an M.Sc. (Area of specialization - Cellular and Molecular Biology) and Ph.D. in Biological Sciences (Area of specialization Pharmacology and Physiology) under the supervision of Dr. Elson Alves Costa at the Federal University of Goias, Institute of Biological Sciences in 2012 and 2015, respectively. His researches focused on preclinical evaluation of crude extracts and/or phytoconstituents with anxiolytic and/or antidepressant properties. He also worked under Dr. Jordan K. Zjawiony, who was the co-advisor of his Ph.D. thesis, at the University of Mississippi, School of Pharmacy. His area of research included the pharmacological evaluation of psychoactive plants, compounds (natural or synthetic) and chemical modification of biologically active natural products. He was awarded a prestigious 2-year postdoctoral fellow (Programa Nacional de P?s Doutorado) to develop analytical method for pharmacokinetic profiling of behavioural alterations in experimental animals. The latter brought his pharmacological research experience full circle. He acted as a student representative on the Board of International Society for Ethnopharmacology (ISE) and just recently, he was elected as a full Board member of ISE. He is a teacher, editorial board member, reviewer, examiner, keynote speaker, co-author of book and articles.

Prof. K V Peter, Director World Noni Research Foundation, Chennai is the Former Vice-Chancellor, Kerala Agricultural University (KAU); Director, Indian Institute of Spices Research, Calicut; Director of Research KAU and Professor of Horticulture from 1979. A post graduate from G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar (1969-1975), he is associated with development of biotic stress resistant varieties in Chilli (Pant-C1, Pant-C2), tomato (Sakthi) and brinjal (Surya) which are grown through out the country.

C. P. Khare was born on March 10, 1932, and has been a herbalist for more than sixty years. His profile is among ?All-Star Profiles? of Linkedin. His works have been cited in more than 1000 research papers, as recorded by Research Gate till April 28, 2017.

Dr Chandra Kant Katiyar, born on September 27, 1954, is MD in Ayurveda and PhD Pharmacology/Rasa Shastra from Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University. For the last more than 25 years

Dr. K.L. Chadha (Padma Shri Awardee) is currently President of the Horticultural Society of India and also Adjunct Professor (Hort.) at IARI. He received M.Sc. (Hort.) degree from Punjab University, Chandigarh and Ph.D. from IARI, New Delhi. He had served in various capacities at IARI, New Delhi, PAU, Ludhiana and Central Mango Research Station, Lucknow. He was the Director, IIHR, Bengaluru, Horticulture Commissioner and Executive Director, National Horticulture Board, Govt. of India; DDG (Hort.), ICAR and ICAR-National Professor (Hort.) at IARI.

Dr. Roohani Pal, Ph. D. in Botany and is a gold medalist during her Bachelor?s and Master?s from Panjab University, Chandigarh. She had been working as a Visiting Scientist with AVRDC-The World Vegetable Center, Regional Center for South Asia (AVRDC-RCSA) based at ICRISAT Campus, Patancheru, Hyderabad, A.P., India.

Dr. Satish Kumar Sain, Ph.D. Senior Scientist (Plant Pathology), ICAR-CICR has been working as Assistant Director - Plant Health Management (Horticulture) at NIPHM, Visiting Scientist & Project Coordinator at The WVC- RCSA, ICRISAT campus, Pathologist at Vibha Agrotech Ltd. and Research Fellow at IARI.