Dr. Y. Rathaiah, Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture, Assam agricultural University, Jorhat. He did Ph.D from BHU, Varanasi  in 1971. He again did Ph.D from National Institute of Agriculture, Grignon, France in 1976. He worked in Assam Agricultural University as scientist in Plant Pathology, Rice Pathologist, Professor of Plant Pathology and Director of Post Graduate Studies. He has more than 50 published research papers, one text book on  An Introduction to Fungal Diseases of Field Crops and seven extension bulletins. He has been working on mushroom for the last ten years.