Jacqui Batley, PhD, ARC Laureate Professorial Fellow, University of Western Australia, Australia
Jacqueline Batley is a Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Western Australia. She was awarded her PhD from the University of Bristol UK in 2001. She moved to Australia in 2002, as a senior research scientist at DPI-Victoria, then led a research group at the University of Queensland as an ARC QEII Research Fellow, from 2007-2014, before moving as an ARC Future Fellow to UWA. Jacqui has received several awards for her research including a University of Queensland Foundation Research Excellence Award, an ARC QEII Fellowship, an ARC Future Fellowship, the Nancy Millis Medal from the Australian Academy of Sciences and a recent ARC Laureate Fellowship. Jacqui has expertise in the field of plant molecular biology, genetics and genomics, gained from working in both industry and academia. Her research applies breakthrough biotechnological advances for crop improvement, through identification of genomic regions controlling traits, which are being translated to commercial outcomes. She is currently focusing on blackleg resistance in the Brassicaceae.
Ratna Prabha, PhD, Agricultural Knowledge Management Unit, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India
Dr Ratna Prabha is Scientist (bioinformatics) at Agricultural Knowledge Management Unit (AKMU, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), India. She is actively working in the different areas of bioinformatics and computational biology including metabolomics, metagenomics, genomics, transcriptomics and plant-microbe interactions. She has publications in different reputed journals with high citations. She is involved in different projects in the area of agricultural bioinformatics. Apart from many other awards, she is also recipient of prestigious NAAS young Scientist award-2023 of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), India.
Anil Rai, PhD , Master in Computer Applications, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, India
Dr Anil Rai is the Assistant Director General –Information and Communication Technology, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India New Delhi. His major area of interest is precision agriculture, development of spatial and non-spatial models, methodologies, procedures and tools for analysis of statistical, biological, omics and image data. Apart from this he has been involved in design and development of efficient computational and informatics solutions for management and analysis large statistical, biological and omics data sets using AI/ML/DL. He was involved in more than 45 research projects and coordinated three major national network programs in the country. Published more than 300 research papers in international and national peer reviewed high impact factor journals in the field of statistics, geo-informatics, economics, data warehousing and data mining, bioinformatics, soft computing, biotechnology and relevant fields of agricultural and allied sciences (Total International Impact Factor of Journals: more than 600; h-Index – 30; i10 Index – 100) . Dr Rai has been consultant to many national and international organizations including FAO, AARDO, CSO and NRAA. He has more than 35 years of experience of teaching, training and capacity building. He has guided 21 students as research guide and has received 19 national awards/recognitions such as Best Teacher Award of National Agricultural Higher Education, Jawahar Lal Nehru National Award etc. He is fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and more than 8 other scientific academies.
