Dr. LS Shashidhara
Dr. LS Shashidhara is currently the Dean of Research and Professor of Biology at Ashoka University. His work involves understanding the mechanisms that govern organ development and growth control in Drosophila along with expanding it to understand human epithelial cancer evolution. For his contribution to biology, he has received several honors like JC Bose National Research Fellowship, CSIR Technology and SS Bhatnagar awards.
Dr. Uma Ramakrishnan
Dr. Uma Ramakrishnan, a renowned Indian Molecular Ecologist, is currently a professor at the National Centre for Biological Sciences. Her group mainly works on understanding the cause of genetic variation in South Asian human population using molecular and computational approaches. Furthermore, her lab works on protection of threatened species of Indian subcontinent and supports the conservation projects on tigers, Indian wild cats, leopards and Macaque monkeys. She is a recipient of Ramanujan fellowship, the prestigious Parker/Gentry Award by Field Museum, Chicago, Outstanding Scientist Award by the Department of Atomic Energy.
Dr. Binish Desai
Dr. Binish Desai, popularly known as the Recycle Man of India, is a Social Entrepreneur who founded Bio Eclectic Technology in 2016. The vision of his lab is to eliminate industrial wastes from landfills via eco-friendly means and recycle those for social impact. In addition to being a Padma Shri nominee, Dr Desai is a recipient of numerous national and international accolades like Rotary International Alumni Humanitarian of the Year award for South Asia, Forbes 30Under 30 Asia 2018 list of successful Social Entrepreneurs. According to him, “Nothing is useless in this world ; what can be a waste to you is someone's asset .”
Dr. Debojyoti Chakraborty
Dr. Debojyoti Chakraborty, a Senior Scientist and the head of RNA biology group at CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology is one of the 30 EMBO young investigators(2020) and also a recipient of CSIR Young Scientist Award(2020). His lab focuses on understanding how modulation of cellular pathways govern the identification of pathogenic conditions and development of genome editing tools like CRISPR, 3D organoids for diagnosis, modelling and correction of deleterious mutations.
Prof. N.H. Ravindranath
Prof. N.H Ravindranath, an active climate change advocate was a professor at the Centre for Sustainable Technologies, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. His research mainly focuses on preparation of guidelines pertaining to greenhouse gas emission in order to assess its impact of climate change and mitigate it. Furthermore, he worked towards community forestry, environmental/ecosystem services, citizen services, bioenergy and biomass production. Prof Ravindranath played a pioneering role in creating awareness on climate change since 1990 and is an active member of the UNFCCC Expert Panel on Kyoto Protocol and UNFCCC Review Expert Panel on GHG inventory of Annex-I or industrialized countries.
Dr. Karishma Kaushik
Dr. Karishma Kaushik heads the human relevant infection biology group at Savitribai Phule Pune University. Her research primarily focuses on development of precision based infection therapeutics in order to gain insight into infection states involving chronic wounds and biofilms. She is a recipient of the prestigious Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship, Har Gobind Khorana Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award by the Government of India.
Dr. Collins Assisi
Dr. Collins Assisi is an assistant professor and head of the Theoretical Neuroscience Laboratory at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. The main focus of his research includes how the dynamic patterns generated by neuronal networks dictate the response of animals to detect, characterize and navigate environmental changes. Dr. Assisi and his team in the context of hippocampal formation and the olfactory system, develop neuronal networks for understanding the attributes of the systems.
Dr. Samir Damare
Dr. Samir Damare is currently a Principal Scientist in the Department of Biological Oceanography, CSIR-National Institute of Oceaonography. His work mainly focuses on understanding the diversity of marine microbiota using modern molecular tools. He is a recipient of CSIR Young Scientist Award(2010) and Senior Scientist Award for the Year 2020 by Microbiologists Society, India. For his research on the process for production of low temperature active alkaline protease from deep-sea fungus, Dr. Damare has been granted two patents in 2010 and 2011.