Dr. Ankit

Dr. Ankit completed his PhD (in May 2022 from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali). He is trained as a biogeochemist and his fundamental research interest lies in deciphering the causal mechanisms responsible for the severest biotic and environmental perturbations in the planet earth’s history (Anthropocene to Mass Extinctions). For his work, he has extensively worked on the different attributes of the biogeochemistry discipline having isotope geochemistry, organic geochemistry, analytical geochemistry and environmental geochemistry as sub-disciplines. The different tools belonging to the sub-disciplines in the field of biogeochemistry are utilized in different environmental archives including lake sediments, estuarine sediments, marine sediments, and peat, rock samples spanning across the entire geological timescale. In specific, the analysis of 'Molecular Organic Fossils: Biomarkers' (alkanes, alkanoic acids, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, hopanoids, steroids, glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers, and amino acids) and their isotopic compositions (¹⁴C, ¹³C, ¹⁵N and ²H) have been the center of the work. He has extensively utilized these biomarkers to improve our understanding of the different biogeochemical cycles on planet earth and its spheres (lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere). In order to acquire the molecular data, various analytical techniques such as Pressurized/Accelerated solvent extraction (PSE and ASE), Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS, GC-MS/MS, GC-qTOF-MS and Pyro GC-MS), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS and LC-MS/MS), isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS), gas chromatography coupled isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and RAMAN spectroscopy has been employed. Overall, his research encompasses a combination of fieldwork, laboratory analyses, analytical measurements and data processing. This integrated approach having biomarkers as a tool provides an all-inclusive insight into Petroleum geochemistry, Biogeochemical cycles, Monsoon dynamics, Fire regimes, and Environmental perturbations whether natural or anthropogenic. Consecutively, the research also focuses on deciphering the causal mechanisms responsible for the severest biotic and environmental perturbations in the planet earth’s history (Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) and Permian-Triassic (P-Tr) Mass Extinctions).