Born in 1965 in the Güneysu district of Rize province, Hüseyin ÇELİK graduated from the Department of Horticulture at the Faculty of Agriculture of Ondokuz Mayıs University with honors in 1988. He completed his master's degree in Viticultural Science in 1990. He became a Doctor of Science in the Department of Viticulture and Breeding in 1995, Assistant Professor in the same field in 1996, Associate Professor in 2003, and Professor in 2009.

In general, he studies grapevine propagation, hybridization, and selection breeding in developing new varieties, disease resistance, and quality and quantity of grapes. With his breeding studies on foxy grapes (Vitis labrusca L) specific to the Black Sea Region, he registered 5 foxy grape varieties ('Ulkemiz', 'Rizessi', Rizellim, 'Çeliksu' and 'Rizpem') for the first time in Turkiye and introduced them to the country's viticulture.

He is the namesake of the new berry fruits that are not cultivated in Turkiye, unknown or left in nature, such as Turkish new berry fruits named as Maviyemis, Turnayemisi, Kekreyemis, Guzyemisi, Çayuzumu and Çobanuzumu’s Fruit, and he is an academician who enabled the inclusion of these fruit species in Turkish agriculture. In addition to blueberry, cranberry, lingonberry, autumn olive berry, Caucasian whortleberry, and bilberry species, which are used as functional foods, he also studies aronia, golden berry (physalis, tomatillo), goji berry, honeyberry, currants, blackberry, raspberry and other unknown berry fruits. .

He introduced the maviyemis (named in Turkish) fruit, which had no plants and/or fruits in Turkiye until the 2000s and became famous in the world as BLUEBERRY, to Turkey for the first time, and he carried out studies on the adaptation, propagation, yield-quality, growth and development of blueberry varieties in many different regions of Turkiye. He started blueberry arboriculture in Turkey by registering the blueberry varieties breed in foreign countries, and he took part in the establishment of thousands of decares of blueberry gardens in soil or soilless culture and pots in almost every region of Turkiye or provided technical-academic support-consultancy to the establishment of hectares of blueberry gardens. It pioneered the processing of blueberry fruit in the jam, cake, fruit juice, ice cream and fruit cake industry, making it a sector in Turkiye.

He has 256 scientific publications, including 19 books on viticulture cultivation and breeding and popular berry fruits like blueberry, cranberry, lingonberry, goji berry, Aronia berry, autumn olive berry, wild Vacciniums etc..

He has carried out dozens of projects with the support of consultancy of TÜBİTAK, SPO, EU, Bilateral Cooperation, University Scientific Research (BAP), Social Risk Reduction (SRAP), University-Industry cooperation and R&D, Development Agencies, Non-Governmental Organizations (Foundations) and Chambers and Private Sector R&D projects or participated in these projects as a researcher on Viticulture and functional and new berry fruits,

He has provided and continues to provide technical, administrative, scientific and technological consultancy to more than 20 commercial companies on grape cultivation (viticulture) and Turkey's new grapefruits, including blueberry. He has taken part in many social responsibility projects such as "From Seed to Tree", "My Fruit - My Tree, My Garden", "My Most Beautiful Balcony", "Agriculture on the Balcony", "I'm Establishing My Hobby Garden"...

Deputy Dean, Deputy Director of the Institute of Science and Technology, Department Head, Deputy Head of the Department, Head of the Department of Horticulture, Head of the Department of Viticulture and Breeding, Vice President of the Samsun Rizeliler Aid and Solidarity Association and Member of the Founders' Board, Consultant of the Environment and Computer-Technology Club. , Student consultancy, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor Representatives, Faculty Board, Institute Board Membership, Quality Board Presidency, Scientific journal editor-in-chief and editorial board membership, Forestry and Environmental Regulation Board Membership and Scientific Projects Evaluation Commission (BAP) membership. and served as a non-academic member and jury member.

He has disseminated the information he produced to farmers all over Turkiye by participating in dozens of news, TV and Radio programs in many written, visual and audio media organs. He has prepared and distributed thousands of brochures, posters, CDs and videos on social media (https://www.youtube.com/@blueberryTR/videos) for the promotion of new fruit species, especially blueberry. He has carried out scientific and technical-technological innovation studies in short and/or medium-long periods in many foreign countries such as America, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia, and has participated in many international symposiums and congresses. Hundreds of seminars, panels, symposiums, congresses, scientific project evaluations, appointments-academic promotions, etc. took part in injuries.

He has the Scientist award, publication incentive awards, and outstanding achievement awards from the Land and Air Force Commands during his reserve officer period.

Viticulture, Horticulture, Berry Fruits, Propagation, Cutivar testing, adaptation, Vitis labrusca, Cultivar development, Vitis vinifera, Blueberry, Cranberry, Autumn olive berry, Aronia, propagation,

USEFUL LINKS

https://www.youtube.com/@blueberryTR/videos

https://www.instagram.com/profhuseyincelik?igsh=NXczbjM3Y3VndjRr&utm_source=qr

https://www.facebook.com/profhuseyincelik?mibextid=PtKPJ9

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Huseyin-Celik

https://personel.omu.edu.tr/tr/huscelik
https://akademik.yok.gov.tr/AkademikArama/view/viewAuthor.jsp

Dr Muhammad Tehseen Azhar is working as Associate Professor at the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture Faisalabad (Pakistan), Besides, his focus is screening and development of segregating population resulting in the development of several bulks of cotton with more yield and fibre traits. Dr Azhar has specific interest in the development of cotton germplasm having tolerance to abiotic stresses, particularly for heat tolerance. Being a Borlaug Alumnus, he worked with various cotton geneticists namely, Dr Richard Percy, Dr Lori L. Hinze and Dr Jame Frelichowsk during a Norman E. Borlaug Fellowship at Texas A&M University and USDA-ARS, USA. Besides, Dr Azhar is Endeavour Alumnus and appointed as Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Plant Biology, UWA. Recently he is appointed as Adjunct Professor, School of Agriculture Sciences, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China. In addition, Dr Azhar is appointed as a Chair of Germplam and Genetic Stock in International Cotton Genome Initiative (ICGI). More recently, he has been awarded with Gold Medal as Young Cotton Breeder of the Asia by International Cotton Researchers Association (ICRA).

I am a Research Scientist-Plant Molecular Biology and an associate professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, University of Erzurum Technical, Erzurum, Turkiye. I received MSc in Agriculture from the University of Ataturk, Erzurum, Turkiye. After completing PhD in Plant Molecular Biology at Hatay Mustafa Kemal University, Hatay, Turkiye. I am currently investigating the effects of biotic and abiotic stress on plant growth, development and crop yield. My research is mainly focused on understanding the mechanisms of plant stresses at the physiological, biochemical and molecular levels. Also, my expertise includes transcriptomics, qRT-PCR, genetic modified organisms, miRNA, molecular marker techniques, and plant breeding.

I am serving Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan as Associate Professor since 2021. I have served Department of Agricultural Genetic Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technologies, Nigde Omer Halisdemir University, Turkey for seven years while has also completed postdoctoral fellows at University of Ankara, Turkey and University of Bologna, Italy. I primary focus on utilizing both conventional and non-conventional approaches to develop climate-resilient cotton varieties.  My research interests span a wide spectrum, encompassing the breeding of climate-resilient cotton varieties, the engineering of biotic stress tolerance traits in economically significant crop plants, the development of dsRNA-based biopesticides for improved insect pest management, and the regulatory aspects of GM cotton. With over 120 peer-reviewed research articles published in international and national journals, I have also edited a book titled Potato Production Worldwide. Furthermore, I also serve as the editor of SCI-indexed journals such as PLOS ONE, Frontiers in Plant Sciences, Frontiers in Genetics, and the Journal of Cotton Research. I do acknowledges the significant impact of transgenic technology on agriculture and thus have also achieved notable success in this realm. 

Mehmet Aydoğan is an Associate Professor at the Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Malatya Turgut Özal University. He is also the Research Coordinator, Scientific Publications Coordinator, Head of the Department of Agricultural Consultancy and Deputy Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics. He is working on Agricultural Extension, Rural Communication, Rural Sociology, Rural Development and Rural Social Networks.