This page has information about former students, postdocs and project personnel. See here for list of past interns.
Postdoctoral Fellows:
BALAMURALI GS, 2018-20 (PhD IISER TVM). Balu investigated evolution of innnate colour preferences in butterflies. He moved on to a postdoc at Newcastle University.
FREERK MOLLEMAN, 2015-17 (PhD Leiden University, Netherlands). Freerk worked on wing pattern and host plant evolution in satyrine butterflies. He now has his own lab at Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan, Poland.
SRIKANTA DANI KGS, 2015-17 (PhD Macquarie University, Australia). Srikanta worked on the evolution of plant reproductive strategies in plants. He is now a faculty member at Azim Premji University.
MARTIN OLOFSSON, 2014-15 (PhD Stockholm University, Sweden). Martin did a brief postdoc with us, conducting experiments on the evolution of false-head patterns in lycaenid butterflies.
PhD students:
HARSHAD MAYEKAR, 2013-2019. Harshad investigated pupal colour plasticity in butterflies from multiple perspectives. He moved on to do a postdoc at Ahmedabad University.
VIVEK PHILIP CYRIAC, 2014-2019. Vivek was the herpetologist in our lab. He explored multiple aspects of evolution and diversification of uropeltid snakes, including biogeography, effect of climate change and colour pattern evolution. He went on to do a postdoc at Centre for Ecological Sciences, Bangalore.
GOPAL MURALI, 2015-2019. Gopal was an integrated PhD student. He holds the record for the fastest PhD in the School of Biology! He worked on the evolution antipredatory strategies that function during prey motion (as well as several other topics unrelated to his PhD!). He went for a postdoctoral stint at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, and then for a Fulbright-Kalam postdoctoral fellowship at University of Arizona, United States.
RANJIT KUMAR SAHOO, 2013-2018. Ranjit worked on the evolution host plant associations in butterflies. He went on to a postdoc at IISER Berhampur, and then took an INSPIRE Faculty fellowship at CCMB, Hyderabad.
Masters students:
ARSHA RATNAM, 2022-23 (IISER-TVM Major project). Arsha worked on plasticity in egg size in Mycalesis mineus.
GOKUL PRABHU, 2021-22 (IISER-TVM Major project). Gokul worked on evolution of host plant associations in Acraea terpsicore
DHEERAJ CL, 2021-22 (IISER-TVM Major project). Dheeraj worked on trade-offs associated with growth rate in satyrine butterflies.
AMAL REJI, 2020-21 (IISER-TVM Major project). Amal explored pupal colour plasticity in satyrine butterflies.
AMITH CS, 2020-21 (IISER-TVM Major project). Amith worked on pupal colour plasticity in pierid butterflies.
SRIKRISHNA NARASIMHANN, 2020-21 (IISER-TVM Major project). Akshay explored the effect of host plant growth and development in Mycalesis mineus.
AKSHAY MOHAN, 2020-21 (IISER-TVM Major project). Akshay explored life historty trait evolution in relation to host plants in Melanitis leda.
PAWAR OMKAR EKNATH, 2019-20 (IISER-TVM Major project). Omkar worked on spontaneous colour preferences in satyrine butterflies.
AMANDA BEN, 2019-20 (IISER-TVM Major project). Amanda investiated context-specific colour preferences in butterflies.
NADI DIXIT, 2018-19 (IISER-TVM Major project). Nadi worked on behavioral adaptations of commensal geckoes.
JOSE MATHEW, 2018-19 (IISER-TVM Major project). Jose explored seed size variation and selection on seed size.
MANAS B SHARMA, 2018-20 (IISER-TVM Major project). Manas did a simulation study in phylogenetics.
ALITHA EDISON, 2017-18 (IISER-TVM Major project). Alitha investigated innate colour pattern preferences in butterflies.
SOUMEN MALLICK, 2017-18 (IISER-TVM Major project). Soumen worked on the evolution of generalist and specialist antipredatory strategies.
ALEX JOHNY, 2016-17 (IISER-TVM Major project). Alex worked on behavioral niche partitioning between common house geckoes in Southern India.
SHUAIB P, 2016-17 (IISER-TVM Major project). Shuaib conducted experiments to understand what factors promote effiency of 'motion dazzle' patterns against predation.
AVANTHIKA P, 2015-16 (IISER-TVM Major project). Avanthika worked on larval and pupal colour plasticity in satyrine butterflies
ARYA ARAVIND, 2015-16 (IISER-TVM Major project). Arya conducted field experiments testing hypotheses related to eyespots against predation.
ASWATHY JR, 2014-15 (IISER-TVM Major project). Aswathy worked on the comparative phylogeography and population genetics of odonates in the Western Ghats.
RITWIKA MUKHERJEE, 2013-2014 (IISER-TVM Major project). Ritwika performed experiments to understand what makes eyespots effective against predation.
Project Personnel:
ASHISH NERLEKAR, 2016-2017 (Project Assistant)
RAVI UMADI, 2015-2017 (Junior Research Fellow)
SORA S, 2015-2016 (Junior Research Fellow)
MRUGANKA RAHUL LELE, 2013-2015 (Junior Research Fellow)
