Debashish Ghosh was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy degree for his thesis, “Bioprospecting in the deltaic Sundarbans for marine microorganisms producing commercially important bioactive compounds” in 2004. Debashish is now an independent researcher working as a Scientist (Biotechnology Area), Biofuel Division of the Indian Institute of Petroleum (CSIR-IIP), Dehradun under the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, Government of India and his interests include bioprospecting and bioprocessing, second generation biofuel and environmental biotechnology. He has recently completed a research project entitled “Bioprospecting for novel antimicrobials and industrially important enzymes from microbial isolates in the Uttarakhand Himalayas” and is supervising a number of doctoral and post graduate students. Previously Debashish worked as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biotechnology, Sardar Bhagwan Singh Post Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences and Research, Balawala, Dehradun.

Malay Saha obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 2005 for his research work styled as “Investigation of Antibiotic Producing Marine Actinobacteria of the Sundarbans: Taxonomy, Production and Characterization”. Thereafter, Malay pursued his career in the biotechnology industry as an Executive Scientist and functional head, Microbiology Division at CavinKare Research Centre, (FMCG) Chennai. His responsibilities included provision of timely, reliable and comprehensive data for all products through relevant microbiological evaluations and provision of expert inputs in terms of regulatory guidelines and improvement in antimicrobial efficacy/ quality standards in products and manufacturing processes. Presently Malay is Lecturer in Botany, Sovarani Memorial College (Jagatballvpur, Howrah) under the University of Calcutta.

Barindra Sana was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy degree in 2007 for his thesis entitled, “Purification and characterization of industrially important enzymes produced by marine microorganisms isolated from the deltaic Sundarbans”. He was recruited as a scientist in the Central Salt and Marine Chemical Research Institute (CSMCRI), CSIR, Government of India and was working on the development of fermentation and downstream processes for specific products of marine microbial or algal origin. Presently Barindra is a postdoctoral scientist in the Division of Bioengineering, School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and his present research area is overexpression, purification and study of folding pattern of recombinant proteins from marine archae.

Arumugam Meyyappan, obtained his Doctor of Philosophy (Pharmacy) degree in 2010 on the thesis “Identification of marine actinomycetes of the Sundarbans, isolation and molecular characterization of their bioactive metabolites”. His doctoral work led to the isolation of 2-allyloxyphenol as a natural product for the first time and establishment of the first type strain isolated from the Sundarbans, Streptomyces sundarbansensis. In addition, Arumugam enthusiastically participated in the research activity of our collaborator, Dr. Jaisankar where he identified anticancer, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of bark extracts from the medicinal plants Commiphora berryi and Commiphora caudate. Arumugam is now employed by Shantha Biotech and posted as a scientist in Hyderabad.

Anindita Mitra was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy degree in 2010 for her research on bioprospecting of marine Actinomycetes from the Indian Sundarbans. Her doctoral work established that, in the Sundarbans, high antagonistic potential (AP, an ecological parameter first described) sampling sites were influenced by tides, while the low AP sites were not. Molecular phylogenetic analysis, morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics of actinomycetes of high AP sites were also studied. She was an Assistant Professor of this School from Jan 2011 to July 2011. Presently Anindita is a postdoctoral fellow at the Max-Planck Research Institute in Garching, Germany and working as microbiologist in the Plasma Medicine project. She is the recipient of the prestigious Max-Planck Research Fellowship. Anindita also qualified in the UGC-NET and ICAR-NET in 2004.

Email: mitranindita@gmail.com

Sreyashi Sarkar, currently working in the field of Green Technology (Nanotechnology) as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Food Technology and Biochemical Engineering, Jadavpur University. During her postdoctoral work, she availed RUSA PDFship (FTBE Dept., JU), CSIR Scientist Pool Officer (Dept. of Chemical Engg., JU), and Research Associateship (School Of Environmental Studies and Dept. of Chemical Engg., JU). She possesses a Bachelor of Technology degree in Food Technology and Biochemical Engineering (2002) and a Master of Technology degree in Biotechnology
(2004) from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. She obtained Ph.D. (Engg.) degree in the year 2010 from Jadavpur University availing CSIR Direct Senior Research Fellowship (2005- 2009). She has also qualified the GATE in 2006. Her previous postdoctoral research work was mainly on the design of a novel biofilm reactor (Enhanced surface area conical cylindrical flask or ES-CCF) and the production of bioactive compounds from marine as well as terrestrial biofilm-formers in the ES-CCF. Her post-doctoral work has been published in reputed international journals and a US patent “Enhanced Surface Area Conico-Cylindrical Flask (ES-CCF) for Biofilm Cultivation”, S. Sarkar, D. Roy, J. Mukherjee, US 8,945,917 B2 (2015) was granted. She secured a medal for the best presentation in the international conference “Biotechnology for Better Tomorrow 2011” held at Aurangabad, India. Sreyashi’s doctoral thesis was concentrated on the design of novel niche-mimic bioreactors for the cultivation of salt-tolerant biofilm-forming marine actinobacteria isolated from the intertidal environment of the Sundarbans. Although an engineer by training, Sreyashi has proficiency in chemical structure elucidation, DNA isolation, PCR techniques, and DNA sequencing. Sreyashi has undergone training in food processing industries and also an online training program on Disaster Management from National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM). She also has a three months training on “Auto CAD with Auto LISP” from the Computer-Aided Design Centre, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Jadavpur University to her credit.

Email: sreyoshi_sarkar@yahoo.co.in

Arnab Pramanik worked as a Senior Research Fellow (ICMR) and his doctoral work was concentrated on the search of antibiotic lead compounds from marine cyanobacteria of the Sundarbans (2007 to 2012). He was awarded the Vidyasagar University silver medal for standing second in the Master’s degree examination in Microbiology. During his Ph. D. work Arnab worked on the isolation and characterization of cyanobacteria possessing antimicrobial activity from the Sundarbans. Arnab’s work involved experimental techniques like DNA isolation, PCR amplification, molecular phylogeny and related bioinformatics analyses, morphological identification of marine cyanobacteria, study of antibacterial activity as well as characterization of bioactive compounds. Presently he is working as Research Associate in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Calcutta in the World Bank and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Government of India) funded projects to explore the microbial diversity of the Sundarbans.

Sayani Mitra – After completing Masters in Biotechnology from Dept. of Life Science & Biotech, Jadavpur University, SayaniMitra joined as a PhD student in School of Environmental Studies in November, 2009. The objectives of her research were to establish novel methods for cultivating biofilm forming estuarine microorganisms. She evaluated the conico-cylindrical flask and rotating disk bioreactor for biofilm cultivation. She was selected for the senior research fellowship from CSIR in 2013. During her doctoral research, she published five research papers in international journals. After her PhD in January 2016, she worked as a post-doctoral researcher under the guidance of Prof. Roland Ulber, Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. During her stay, she worked on the application of micro-milled metallic surfaces as biofilm substrata & online analysis of biofilm formation in flow-cell. Sayani is now working as a National Postdoctoral Fellow (NPDF) under Prof. Kasturi Mukhopadhyay, School of Environmental Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Anirban Bhattacharyya – Anirban worked as a Senior Research Fellow (DST INSPIRE), obtained Doctor of philosophy in the year 2016.His doctoral work was based on production of microbial bioplastics.Anirban holds a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology(2006) from Visva –Bharati, Santiniketan. He holds a Master of Science in Environmental Science (2008) achieving the distinction of first class first from Visva- Bharati, Santiniketan. He also holds a Master of Philosophy degree in Environmental Science (2010) from School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University.Anirban also qualified the UGC-NET examination in 2009.Currently he is working as a programme executive in Doordarshan Kendra(Indian State Television).