I am working as a Professor in the Department of Botany & Microbiology, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. I received my Ph.D. degree in Botany with special emphasis in plant tissue culture and biotechnology from the Aligarh Muslim University, India. I have done postdoctoral research at the Biological Research Centre (CIB), Madrid, Spain under a Program of Ministry Science & Education, Spain and at the Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India under the DST Fast-track scheme for young scientist by the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India. I also visited to the Kangwon National University, South Korea to learn some advance techniques in tissue culture and genetic engineering. During my research work I availed several national fellowships including Junior Research Fellowship (UGC) and Senior Research Fellowship (CSIR).

I have been elected as Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, London, UK. Recently, I have been conferred for the Outstanding Scientist Award-2021 by VDGOOD Professional Association, India. I was also awarded the Plant Biotechnologist Award-2017 by the Society of Scientific and Educational Research (SESR), India and Scientist of the Year Award-2015 by the National Environmental Science Academy, India for achievements and contributions in this field. My current research focuses on in vitro morphogenesis, tissue culture, mass propagation and genetic transformation in plants of economic importance and characterization of regenerated plants using molecular markers and flow cytometry. I am also involved in encapsulation of vegetative propagules/somatic embryos for germplasm conservation, storage and exchange. Another area of my research is in the interaction of promising pollutants (nanoparticles, bisphenol etc.) with plants (uptake & translocation) and their toxicological effects and mechanism of interaction at cellular and molecular level and cell death in edible crops. Recently, we have begun to investigate the comparative transcriptome of potential medicinal plants to identify genes involved in biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. I have developed several protocols for in vitro regeneration, synthetic seed production of several rare medicinal plants. I am actively engaged in several projects and some have been successfully completed. I have published over 117 research articles in peer-reviewed journals of international repute and these papers have been cited over 3737 times with a Google h index of 32. I hold life memberships of several academic bodies/societies and am a Fellow of the SESR. I serve in editorial boards of several peer-reviewed journals in the area of plant biology including Plant Cell, Tissue & Organ Culture. I actively participate in disseminating knowledge in my research area. In addition to peer reviewed journal publications, I have edited 07 books and written 07 book chapters in the area of plant tissue culture, plant growth regulation and related biotechnologies.