Abhishek Gopal

Joined Evol-Eco Lab: October 2020

Abhishek is an engineer turned ecologist, keen on plant-animal interaction and plant community ecology. He has a Master's degree in Wildlife Biology and Conservation from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (2016-2018), for which he examined frugivory and seed predation in the forest fragments of the Anamalais. He has been working with Nature Conservation Foundation since 2018, examining the carbon stock,  the magnitude, and the stability of carbon capture of different natural vegetation types compared to monoculture plantations in the Anamalais. Following this, he briefly worked in Narcondam Island, focussing on plant-animal interaction and plant diversity on the island. For his PhD, he is exploring the community assembly of plants in the Western Ghats from an ecology-evolutionary perspective. He has a soft spot for Ficus and large old trees and plans to work towards forest restoration. You can read more about his work here.

Aditi Sinha

Joined Evol-Eco Lab: April 2021

Aditi is an agricultural sciences graduate cum microbiologist who has a keen interest in animal

venoms. For her master's (Indian Agricultural Research Institute, PUSA New Delhi), she tried to assess the molecular interactions in soyabean- Bradyrhizobium symbiosis using RNA seq data in response to different Nitrogen levels in the soil. Currently, at the evolutionary ecology lab, she is trying to understand and document the venom diversity in the centipedes of Peninsular India using multiple approaches, such as venom proteomics and venom gland transcriptomics. She is also interested to understand the role of ecological drivers such as diet in governing the overall evolution of animal venoms. When not doing the “venom” work in the lab, one can surely find her cooking, exploring regional cuisines, public speaking, acting and reading Hindi poetry.

Pragyadeep Roy

Joined Evol-Eco Lab: December 2020

My interests lie in understanding the pattern and process of biological diversification, i.e. balance between speciation and extinction. The fields of study that fascinate me the most are historical biogeography, population genetics, phylogenetics, systematics and theoretical aspects of evolution in general. My earlier research focused on using multiple lines of evidence (molecular and morphological) to delimit blindsnakes of peninsular India. Apart from research, I like writing and making music