Rapid industrialization, fast urbanization and increased technological advancement of the world during the 20th century proved to be a blessing as well as a curse on certain counts, as it also resulted in accumulation of huge heaps of environmental wastes and hazardous persistent substances. Advent of biotechnology in the last quarter of 20th century heralded a new era in combating the problems of environmental pollution. A new branch of environmental biotechnology called Biodegradation and Bioremediation specially focused on the degradation and remediation of persistent pollutants by means of biological organisms and/or their components. The present volume is a collection of articles on process mechanism and microbiology of biodegradation, sonobiodegradation, biodegradation of wood, bioremediation of heavy metals and soils, microbial bioleaching and many more for interest of personnel involved in disciplines of biotechnology, microbiology, biochemistry, soil sciences and environmental sciences. The volume 8 involves discussion on the following topics: o Process mechanism of biodegradation o Role of various enzymes of microbes in bioremediation o Mechanistic issues of sono-biodegradation o Renaissance of bioremediation degradation of environmental pollutants o Biodeterioration and biodegradation of wood materials by fungi o Bioremediation and reclamation of soils affected by acid mine drainage o Shifting of microbial community and metabolism in bioleaching process o Bioremediation of heavy metals o Microbial bioleaching for recovery of metals from industrial waste o Protein engineering for lignocellulose degradation o Soil-metal-microbe interaction and its implication on microbial phytoremediation o Marine microbial diversity towards degrading xenobiotics o Environmental biofouling and its control strategies o Biological waste gas purification o Recent developments in biodegradation of synthetic dyes by plant peroxidases This volume contains 15 articles from 47 researchers and/or academicians representing 8 nations, namely Bulgaria, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Pakistan, Singapore and United Kingdom giving an overview of the various research activities being carried out in different parts of the world in the area of Biodegradation and Bioremediation of environmental pollutants.
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Dr. Pravindra Kumar (born March 1, 1973) is a structural biologist who has made original contributions in the fields of Bioremediation, Structure based drug design, Protein engineering and X-ray crystallography. He has played an active role in the research projects on biodegradation of toxic aromatic compounds and structural biology in drug resistance in India and abroad. He has published more than 65 research papers in leading international journals. He has been awarded the Dr. S.V. Talekar Gold Medal as a best post graduate award of Biophysics from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (2001). He has also been awarded the fellowship from CSIR (1999) and young scientist BOYSCAST award in 2008. Dr. Kumar obtained his Masters in Physics in first Division from the CCS University of Meerut. He started his research career in 1996 as a graduate student at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. He obtained his Ph. D degree in 2001 working on three dimensional structure determination of Lactoferrin. During his Ph.D., he worked as a senior demonstrator for three years in the Dept. of Biophysics, AIIMS. Soon after obtaining his Ph. D degree, he worked about four and half years (20012005) as a Post Doctoral Research fellow in the USA at Purdue University, West Lafayette-Indiana. After his return to India he worked as an Assistant Professor (20052012) and an Associate Professor (201215) in the Department of Biotechnology at I.I.T. Roorkee, where he established a Macromolecular Crystallographic Unit for structure based drug discovery. After establishing his own research group in the Department of Biotechnology, IIT Roorkee, Dr. Kumar and his group has made significant contribution towards the degradation of persisted pollutants using structure and functional studies of biphenyl degrading pathway enzymes. He has worked on plant therapeutic proteins and also developing inhibitors against some of the drug target proteins, which could be potential drugs. His publications have more than 740 citations with H-index of 14.
Dr. Bhola Ram Gurjar is a Professor in Civil (Environmental Engineering) and Head of Centre for Transportation Systems (CTRANS) at India's premier technological institution, Indian Institute of Technology IIT Roorkee. He holds a PhD in the area of Environmental Risk Analysis from India's premier technological institution I.I.T. Delhi followed by Postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute in Mainz (Germany). He has about 25 years' progressive professional experience in industry, teaching, training, research, and consultancy. Professor Gurjar has (co)authored / (co)edited nine books and 140 publications in total. He has received several awards and fellowships including the prestigious Advanced Postdoctoral Research Fellowship of the Max Planck Society (Germany) (2002-2005) and UKIERI Grant to visit Univ. of Surrey (U.K.) (Dec. 2012-Jan. 2013). Based on his outstanding research work at the MPIC Mainz, the Scientific Steering Committee of the global change SysTem for Analysis, Research and Training (START), Washington, D.C., U.S.A., honored him with the 2004 START Young Scientist Award. He has received the American Society of Civil Engineers' State of the Art of Civil Engineering Award for the year 2014 on the co-edited book Climate Change Modeling, Mitigation, and Adaptation. He is also co-recipient of The Nawab Zain Yar Jung Bahadur Memorial Medal (best research paper award) from Environmental Engineering Division of The Institution of Engineers (India), Kolkata, for the year 199596. The Institution of Engineers (India)'s National Design and Research Forum (NDRF) has awarded him the National Design Award for Environmental Engineering 2011. Prof. Gurjar is fellow and life member of several professional bodies and organizations and serves them actively. For example, Prof. Gurjar has served the Roorkee Local Centre of The Institution of Engineers (India) as Honorary Secretary and Chairman from 2010-2012 and 2012-2014, respectively. Recently, recognizing his significant contribution in the discipline of Environmental Engineering, the Environmental Division Board of the Institution of Engineers (India) has conferred on him the Award of Eminent Environmental Engineer during the Inaugural Session of 31st National Convention of Environmental Engineers held on 6th November, 2015 in Chandigarh, India. He has also received The Institution of Engineers (India) Uttarakhand State Centre's Eminent Engineers Award 2014. The award was conferred by the Hon. Chief Minister of Uttarakhand on 3rd February 2016 in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. Dr. Gurjar is among the leading academics and researchers who have worked extensively in the area of environmental science and engineering specially focused on air and water pollution, and environmental quality and health risk assessment, which is reflected in his several high...