Pramod Kumar Rout is a veterinary graduate and completed a doctoral degree in animal genetics and breeding from the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly, UP, India. He specialises in the genetics of disease resistance. He has also worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, as a visiting scientist at the University of Arizona, USA and in the Genetics and Genomics Division at the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, UK.
He is a researcher in the field of genetic improvement of livestock and using molecular genetics to improve selection. He also coordinates research projects on goat improvement in India. His research contributions centre around livestock genetic diversity, conservation of animal genetic resources, genetics of disease resistance and heat stress regulation in livestock, and milk genomics. He has also worked in the conservation of endangered goat species and has 20 years' experience in managing field-based projects. Ashok Kumar is presently working as a Principal Scientist in Veterinary Medicine at ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Goats, Makhdoom, and Mathura. He is a veterinary graduate ( B V Sc & AH) and has a PhD in Veterinary Medicine. He has more than 27 years' experience in teaching and research in the field of animal disease management, prevention and control. He has been working on the epidemiology, treatment and management of goat diseases for 17 years. His research covers a range of topics such as clinical diagnostics in farm animals, drug result monitoring, clinical disease management, diagnostic development and alternative therapy. He has published 125 articles in research journals, more than 90 abstracts in proceedings and has presented 15 lead papers in national and international seminars and symposiums. He has filed 8 patents in drug research and commercialised six product formulations. He has supervised a number of postgraduate and PhD students, and has also worked as a visiting scientist to USDA ARS Eastern Regional Research Centre, Pennsylvania USA where he studied plant derived natural antimicrobials. In 2013 he was awarded the prestigious R L Agrawal National Gold Medal by the Indian Society for Veterinary Medicine for his outstanding contribution to Veterinary Medicine in India. From 1978 to 2009, Professor Behera was a Professor of Biotechnology at three distinguished Indian universities, where he taught several postgraduate courses on bio-energy management and biomass processing technology. In 2009 he joined a MNS company as an adviser for speciality chemicals production and drug design through microbial processing technology. Professor Behera is associated with national and international companies as a technical adviser for the production of biopharmaceuticals under cGMP norms. He is an accomplished writer and has authored books published by CRC Press (USA) and Springer Verlag (Germany). Professor Behera's writing takes many forms including free verse, haiku, Senryu, Sonnet, Tanka and quatrain. He publishes English poems in both national and international magazines.