Alumni

Sheeba Vasu

PhD, 2002: Probing the adaptive significance of circadian rhythms (Best Thesis Medal).

Sheeba went on to do extended postdoctoral stints with Patrick Emory (Univ. of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcestor, USA) and Todd C Holmes (New York Univ. and Univ. of California, Irvine). She then joined EOBU, JNCASR, as a DST Ramanujan Fellow and is now Associate Professor in the Neuro Sciences Unit of JNCASR (Link to lab website).

N G Prasad

PhD, 2005: Life-history evolution in laboratory populations of Drosophila melanogaster subjected to selection for faster development and early reproduction (Best Thesis Medal in Biological Sciences).

Prasad went on to do a post-doc with Adam Chippindale at Queen's University, Canada, and is presently Professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali, India. His lab is interested in the broad areas of sexual conflict, sexual selection, life-history evolution and evolutionary ecology of immunity, and approaches these questions using classical laboratory selection on fruitflies, phenotypic manipulation as well as molecular methods (Link to lab website).

Sutirth Dey

PhD, 2007: Experimental and theoretical investigation of the dynamics and stability of single populations and metapopulations of Drosophila melanogaster in the laboratory (Best Thesis Medal in Biological Sciences).

Immediately upon finishing his PhD, Sutirth joined the Biology Faculty of IISER-Pune and is currently Professor at that institute. His favorite description for himself is "an explorer on the mental landscape, who is interested in several things to various degrees of seriousness. (Link to his personal website)". His lab works on evolution in fluctuating environments, using E. coli, and the evolution of dispersal ability, using Drosophila. They also do a lot of theoretical and experimental work on stability and dynamics of small populations and metapopulations (Link to lab website).

Shampa Ghosh

PhD, 2009: Evolution of life-history traits, canalization and reproductive isolation in laboratory populations of Drosophila melanogaster selected for faster pre-adult development and early reproduction.

Current position: DST Woman Scientist, School of Biotechnology, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha and Part Time Visiting Faculty, National Institute of Science Education & Research (NISER), Jatani, Odisha. Postdoctoral work at Michigan State University.

I am a fly biologist and I am broadly interested in the relationship between phenotypic plasticity and evolution. Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of organisms to produce different phenotypes in different environments. Previously, plasticity was considered a contentious issue in evolution. However, in the past couple of decades there has been a renewed interest in plasticity among evolutionary biologists, and plasticity is currently viewed as an agent that can aid adaptive evolution.

During my PhD, I used experimental evolution to study various evolutionary correlates of rapid development in Drosophila, including evolution of reproductive isolation in my study populations mediated by body size divergence. The focus of my postdoctoral research on the other hand, was studying various mechanistic aspects of body size plasticity in flies.

Currently I am working at the KIIT university, Bhubaneswar to set up a fly laboratory where I plan to start working on an experiemental evolution project (funded by the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India) to explore the relationship between plasticity and evolution.

I teach an undergraduate biology course at KIIT for their integrated M. Tech degree that covers the basics of genetics, developmental biology, ecology and evolution. Since last year I am also teaching a masters level course on evolution at NISER for their integrated MSc. Course as a visiting faculty.

Google Scholar Profile:

https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=aQPqPu0AAAAJ&hl=en

K M Satish

PhD, 2010: Reverse evolution and gene expression studies on populations of Drosophila melanogaster selected for rapid pre-adult development and early reproduction.

Satish is presently an Associate Professor at the University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Shimoga, India.

Geetanjali P Vaidya

MS, 2013: Experimental and theoretical modelling of the dynamics of D. melanogaster populations selected for adaptation to larval crowding and subjected to destabilizing rearing conditions.

Anjali was an Integrated PhD student of the 2010 batch and left after taking her Master's degree. She was a graduate student at Univ. of California, Irvine, for a while and has since been pursuing science writing.

Manaswini Sarangi

Integrated PhD student; 2010 batch

MS, 2013: Preliminary investigations into the causes for alternative routes to the evolution of competitive ability in populations of Drosophila selected for adaptation to larval crowding.

PhD, 2018: Ecological details mediate different paths to the evolution of larval competitive ability in Drosophila.

Manaswini is presently a postdoc with Monica Dus at the University of Michigan.

Avani Mital

Integrated PhD student; 2010 batch

MS, 2013: Preliminary investigations into reproductive fitness and conflict in Drosophila populations selected for rapid pre-adult development and early reproduction.

PhD, 2019: Effects of selection for rapid development and early reproduction on male-female co-evolution and conflict in Drosophila melanogaster.

Avani is presently a postdoc with Urban Friberg at Linkoping University, Sweden.

Punyatirtha Dey

Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2007-10.

Punya brought molecular genetics experience to the lab and worked on various aspects of the biochemistry, immune system traits and gene-expression patterns in faster developing flies. After his stint in our lab, he has been working in Thermo Fisher Scientific, Bengaluru, India.