Lab Director

Growing up, Sharika dreamed of understanding the essence of life (a. k. a., what keeps us ticking!) by its most basic, 'biological' nuts and bolts! That passion led her to pursue her undergraduate studies in Biochemistry at Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi. In college, she devoured everything she was taught about human physiology, endocrinology, immunology and metabolism. She also figured that brains seemed to hold the reins of behavior and applied to National Brain Research Centre (NBRC, Manesar)'s inaugural program of Master's in Neuroscience (by research). Luckily, she got through and during her training there, for the first time, came across the field of Cognitive Neuroscience! She decided to do a Ph.D. working with Prof. Aditya Murthy at NBRC and after her graduation in 2014, joined Prof. Michael Platt's lab (first at Duke University and later at University of Pennsylvania) for her post-doctoral research. She joined the Interdisciplinary Program of Cognitive Science at IIT Kanpur in December, 2019 as a Visiting Assistant Professor (and subsequently, the Department of Cognitive Science as an Assistant Professor in June, 2021). She thanks her teachers & mentors for their generosity & support that has made it possible for her to live her dream!