M. Firoze Quamar,^1,*,** Ratan Kar<sup>1,***

1</sup>Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow, India

^*CONTACT M. Firoze Quamar quamar_bot@yahoo.co.in; firoz.quamar@gmail.com Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow 226007, India
^**M. Firoze Quamar is presently working as a Research Scientist (Scientist “C”) at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP), Lucknow, India. He, after passing his Matriculation in 1994 from Sri Gandhi High School (a Government Hindi-medium School), Parihar, Sitamarhi (Bihar, India), enrolled for Intermediate (Science) in Ram Dayalu Singh (RDS) College, Muzaffarpur (Bihar) and passed his Intermediate examination in 1996. After completing his Graduation (B.Sc. [Hons] Botany) in 1999 from the same college, he went to the University Department of Botany, Baba Saheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar Bihar University (BRABU), Muzaffarpur (Bihar), India and earned his master degree (M.Sc.) in Botany with specialization in Plant Biotechnology in 2001, though the final examination was held in 2004. He joined BSIP, Lucknow as a Birbal Sahni Research Scholar (BSRS) in 2007 and completed his Ph.D. (in Botany) from Lucknow University, Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), India in 2011. He also worked as a Birbal Sahni Research Associate (BSRA) in BSIP from 2011 to 2013. He was selected as Scientist “B” in BSIP in October 2013. He is a Quaternary palynologist by training and his research interests mainly include the reconstruction of palaeovegetation and palaeoclimate in the central Indian core monsoon zone (CMZ) as well as in the Western Indian Himalaya during the Late Quaternary, based mainly on pollen evidence. He has published 43 research papers (including 5 review articles) and 7 meeting reports in peer-reviewed journals.
^***Ratan Kar is currently working as Scientist ‘E’ at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow, India. He has specialization in palynology and has worked on a wide range of problems of varying ages and areas which involve the use of palynofossils for their resolution; such as Gondwana sediments (Permiam-Triassic), Deccan Intertrappean beds (Upper Cretaceous-Early Palaeocene) and Quaternary fluvio-glacial and lacustrine deposits of the Higher Himalayas and the Arctic Region. His current research interests in Quaternary palaeoclimate studies are looking into the aspects of vegetation succession and climate change from the glacial sites in western Himalaya and deciphering the anthropogenic impact on the degradation of tree-line in the Higher Himalaya.