Biology | Our Past Through Biomolecules

Dr. Kritika Garg is an evolutionary biologist specializing in population genetics and behavioral ecology. She joined Ashoka University as a Ramalingaswami Fellow in 2021. Her lab uses an interdisciplinary approach to understand the evolution of species across time scales. The two major questions the lab is currently working on are - The role of sexual selection in shaping the social/mating system and speciation - Understand the genomic legacy of domestication in the Indian subcontinent She obtained her Master’s degree in Genomics from the Madurai Kamaraj University, after which she persuaded her PhD in Behavioral Ecology at the National Centre for Biological Science under the guidance of Dr. Uma Ramakrishnan. During her PhD, she combined long-term field-based behavioral data with population genetic data and rigorous statistical modelling to define promiscuity and mating systems of natural populations. She provided one of the rare and earliest evidence of promiscuity in harem forming bats, while also revealing the importance of flexible mating strategies in wild populations. After this she moved to the National University of Singapore and worked on speciation and biogeography of various avian lineages. Her post-doctoral research focused on the effects of Pleistocene glaciations in shaping the avifauna diversity in South East Asia and Australasia using both fresh as historical museum samples. Prior to joining Ashoka University, Dr. Garg was a Faculty Fellow at the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology, Bangalore.

Akash Srinivas is a prehistoric archaeologist, and his research interests primarily concern with palaeoanthropology and palaeolithic archaeology, incorporating a multidisciplinary approach, drawing upon archaeology, anthropology, geology, geography, geomorphology, GIS and remote-sensing technologies, and lithic studies. He is currently engaged in the study of the nature and variability of stone tool technology of the South Asian Lower Palaeolithic and characterising the nature of Palaeolithic occupation in southern Karnataka. He has completed his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Mohali, and has a Masters in Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology from Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Pune, and an Erasmus Mundus International Masters in Quaternary and Prehistory (IMQP) from a European consortium of institutions based in Italy, Spain, France and Portugal. His previous research work has concerned prehistoric explorations and the analysis of stone tool assemblages of key Lower Palaeolithic sites such as Kibbanahalli (Karnataka, India), Chirki (Maharashtra, India) and Isernia La Pineta (Italy), amongst others, and is outlined in multiple research publications and conference presentations. He has also carried out and participated in fieldwork and excavations in various parts of India, Italy, Spain and Germany, including important sites such as Atapuerca (Spain) and Hathnora (Madhya Pradesh, India). He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Lithic Studies, and actively engages in public archaeology, as a resource person for multiple public archaeology forums and educational institutions. He is also the co-host of the podcast ‘Chippin’ Away’.

Kalyan Sekhar Chakraborty specializes in Biomolecular Archaeology and Archaeological Geochemistry. His research interest is in reconstructing ancient animal herding practices. His research explores the role of domesticated animals and the inter-relationship between humans-animals-environment in the development and dispersal of complex societies in South Asia, especially in India. His current research interest is in reconstruction of traditional indigenous diets and the effects of European Expansion on traditional food practices in Southern Ontario, Canada. Kalyan completed his PhD in Anthropological Archaeology from the Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Canada, in 2019. He has held postdoctoral and research positions at the University of Toronto and McMaster University. He has excavated and supervised excavations at many archaeological sites in India, Canada, and Hungary. Apart from teaching at Ashoka University, he is pursuing Postdoctoral research at the Max-Planck Institute for the Science of Human History as an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow. In addition, he is collaborating on a Social Science and Humanities Research Council Canada (SSHRC)-funded project that aims to reconstruct the traditional indigenous diet of the Six Nation population of Southern Ontario using ceramic residues.

Alok Bhattacharya is Professor of Biology. He is the recipient of Robert McNamara Fellowship (World Bank), Rockefeller Biotechnology Career Development Award, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize and JC Bose Fellowship, and is a fellow of Indian National Science Academy and Indian Academy of Sciences. He also served as one of the Vice Presidents of INSA. Following his Ph.D. at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, he trained at the National Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, USA. He spent a large part of his independent career at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, where his scientific interests were in the area of infectious diseases, biology of parasitic pathogens and genomics. He is credited with helping to set up one of the first teaching and research programs on Bioinformatics and Computation Biology in India. His current research interests are rare diseases, computational genomics and biology of pathogenic parasites.