Dr. Pankaj Kumar Arora is currently an Assistant Professor and DBT-Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellow at the Department of Microbiology, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University in Lucknow, India. Dr. Arora is also an Editorial Board Member for the journal Scientific Reports, an Associate Editor for the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, and an Academic Editor for PLOS ONE. He is the recipient of several national awards and fellowships including a Young Botanist Award and Dr. Y. S. Murty Medal from the Indian Botanical Society. His major focus area is environmental microbiology, and is currently investigating the biodegradation and bioremediation of various xenobiotic compounds including nitrophenols, chlorinated nitrophenols and indole. He has published a total of 36 papers in respected journals, two edited books and has eight years of teaching and research experience at national and international institutes.