Advisory Board and Editors Natural Resource Management
Diaa Abd El-Moneim
My academic journey began with an MSc in Plant Breeding and Genetics at Suez Canal University, where my research focused on evaluating drought tolerance and disease resistance in wheat, providing a solid foundation in abiotic stress tolerance. This early work fueled my commitment to understanding and addressing plant resilience under stress conditions. Thanks to an Erasmus Mundus scholarship, I pursued my PhD at Complutense University of Madrid, where I investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying aluminum stress tolerance in rye. Notably, I was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship funded by AECID just before defending my thesis—a pivotal achievement that underscored the relevance of my research. This fellowship enabled me to join the National Center of Biotechnology (CNB) in Madrid. I gained expertise in proteomics, gene expression analysis, and molecular tool development to improve plant abiotic stress resilience. These experiences greatly expanded my knowledge of gene regulation and stress physiology and led to high-impact publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Abd El Moneim’s research encompasses multiple domains, including the study of morphological , physiological, and molecular mechanisms that govern plant responses to stress factors such as salinity, drought , aluminum toxicity, heat, and pathogens. His work in identifying gene families and stress-responsive proteins is complemented by his efforts to apply DNA barcoding and chloroplast genomic assemblies for species identification and development of molecular markers, as well as contributing to taxonomical and evolutionary concepts and identifying transcriptional regulators critical for stress adaptation, with particular emphasis on crops like wheat and wild plants adapted to extreme environments. His methodologies include designing and analyzing field trials , protein analysis, nucleic acid extraction, fingerprinting , GWAS , and the characterization of chloroplast genomes. Dr. Abd El Moneim’s expertise in molecular breeding and genomics focuses on improving abiotic stress tolerance in staple crops, especially for agriculture in developing countries.
Kabindra Adhikari
Kabindra Adhikari is a soil scientist with expertise in pedometrics, soil-landscape modeling, environmental data science and precision agriculture applications. He holds a PhD in Agroecology with research focusing on pedometrics. His research interests include digital soil mapping, pedology, soil sensing, terrain analysis, soil spectroscopy, soil carbon, soil morphometrics, and ecosystem services. He is developing tools and guidelines to promote precision conservation for croplands by coordinating geospatial data streams for the assessment of sub-field cropland productivity, economics, sustainability and environmental impacts.
Faheem Ahmad
Dr. Faheem Ahmad is Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology and Nematology in the Department of Botany at Aligarh Muslim University, India. Author of over 40 peer-reviewed publications, his research interests include plant-nematode interaction, mass spectrometry-based metabolomics, nematode management and nematicidal bioagents.
Teri Balser
Professor Teri Balser is Dean of Teaching and Learning for the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Curtin University, where she came after having been Dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Florida. She received a Ph.D. in soil microbiology came from the University of California at Berkeley, and she completed postdoctoral research in ecosystem ecology at Stanford University. She is a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, and was recently named to the Australian Research Council College of Experts.
Her research centers on understanding microbial community-level ecophysiological responses to stress, disturbance, and change, and the consequences of these for ecosystem functioning. She has worked in countries worldwide studying restoration, carbon sequestration, invasive species, biodiversity, and land use/land cover.
In addition to international recognition as an accomplished research scholar, Dr. Balser is widely known in higher education as a change agent and leader in Science, Technology Engineering and Math education (STEM). She is a co-founder of the Society for Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER), a National Vision and Change Fellow with the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE), and was a Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Chair to India in 2015 to help build capacity at the national level for pedagogically advanced and responsive STEM education.
Steven J Bograd
Dr. Steven Bograd is an oceanographer at NOAA’s Environmental Research Division in Monterey, California, and an Adjunct Faculty at the Department of Ocean Sciences, University of California-Santa Cruz. His research is focused on physical-biological interactions, eastern boundary current systems, climate variability, marine biologging, fisheries oceanography, and ecosystem-based management. He is currently involved in a number of research projects studying climate variability and its impacts on the marine ecosystems of the North Pacific Ocean. Steven was co-Principal Investigator of the Census of Marine Life’s Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) program, and is currently an Editor-in-Chief at Fisheries Oceanography and co-chair of the PICES FUTURE Scientific Steering Committee. Steven received his PhD in Oceanography from the University of British Columbia in 1998, and held a post-doctoral fellowship at Scripps Institution of Oceanography before coming to NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center in 2001.
Gabriele Casazza
My current research interests focus on the study of biogeography and conservation of endemic plants. Research topics include the effects of past and future climate change, the reproductive biology, the phylogeography and the taxonomy.
Marco Cavalli
Marco Cavalli obtained the PhD in Environmental Watershed Management in 2009 at the TeSAF (University of Padova) with a thesis on "Hydrological and morphological characterization of mountain basins by means of airborne LiDAR technology”. Since 2009 Marco Cavalli is Researcher at CNR-IRPI of Padova. His research interests include: Geomorphometry, Airborne Laser Scanning technology (LiDAR) and high-resolution DTMs applications, Geomorphic processes in mountain catchments, Post Flash flood investigation, analysis of historical information, GIS and surface hydrology. Currently, his main interest is related to sediment connectivity assessment through geomorphometric approaches.
He is\was scientific responsible or coordinator of CNR IRPI in several National and European projects (SedAlp, GESTO, Gadria Project, KINOFLOW). Since 2011 he is teaching a course for PhD and post doc researchers entitled 'Geomorphometry: quantitative analysis of earth surface' at the University of Padova. He is\was supervisor of three research grants at CNR IRPI, co-advisor of two PhD and several B.S. and M.S. theses of the University of Padova, Udine, Wageningen, Stockholm on geomorphology and hydrology fields. He is author and co-author of more than 50 papers in international journals.
Prasenjit Chatterjee
Dr. Prasenjit Chatterjee is currently a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Dean (Research and Consultancy) at MCKV Institute of Engineering, West Bengal, India. He has over 4700 citations and 120 research papers in various international journals and peer reviewed conferences. He has authored and edited more than 25 books on intelligent decision-making, fuzzy computing, supply chain management, optimization techniques, risk management and sustainability modelling.
Leticia Costa-Lotufo
Dr. Costa-Lotufo is a full professor at the Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo. Her lab is focused on the discovery of new anticancer compounds from Brazilian marine biodiversity and studies on their mechanisms of action. She coordinate a multidisciplinary project to access marine microorganisms diversity and biotechnological potential along the Brazilian coast and islands. Dr. Costa-Lotufo’s activities include the supervision of undergraduate and graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. She has published book chapters, review articles and more than 230 articles in peer-reviewed journals. On 2010, Dr. Costa-Lotufo was nominated as a young scientist of the Brazilian Academy of Science (2010-2014).
Robert Costanza
Professor of Ecological Economics, University College London, Institute for Global Prosperity, Senior Fellow, Stockholm Resilience Center, Stockholm, Sweden; Affiliate Fellow, Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, University of Vermont; deTao Master of Ecological Economics, deTao Masters Academy, Shanghai China
Mark John Costello
B.Sc. (NUI Galway); Ph.D. 1987 (NUI Cork). Involved in World Register of Marine Species, International Association for Biological Oceanography, Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Ocean Biodiversity Information System, Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network, Species 2000, IUCN. Worked in Ireland, Plymouth England, Aberdeen and Edinburgh Scotland, St Andrews Canada, and Auckland New Zealand.
Simon J D Cox
Simon's professional focus is informatics applied to earth and environmental sciences. Starting in geophysics and mineral exploration, he recognised patterns in information structures that are common across multiple applications or domains, and are thus amenable to standardized cross-domain solutions. In support of this goal, he has engaged in various international standardization efforts, primarily in geospatial and web communities. A consistent conceptual view has been adapted to successive technology frameworks, including XML, UML, JSON, RDF, OWL, and Linked Data. His current work is mainly aligning geospatial information standards with semantic web technologies and linked open data principles, with a particular focus on governance arrangements and vocabulary publication and management.
Dr Cox was awarded the 2006 Gardels Medal by OGC, and was selected to present the 2013 Leptoukh Lecture for AGU.