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MENTORS IN ACADEMIA

Dr. Arun Kumar, Senior Scientist, CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT)

 

LinkedIn Profile

Official Website

 

Current Location: Palampur, Himachal Pradesh

 

Previous Designation (starting with PhD):

Designation

Institute

PhD

Panjab University, Chandigarh & CSIR-IHBT, Palampur, HP, India

Postdoctoral Fellow

McGill University, Canada

Postdoctoral Research Associate

University of Wisconsin Madison, USA

Ramanujan Fellow

Panjab Agricultural University, India

Field(s) of Experience: Enzymology, Protein engineering, Functional genomics, Crop improvement

A short description of current work:

(1) to identify enzymes with novel functions and exploit them in healthcare and agriculture industry

(2) to understand the mechanisms of genetic resistance in crops against bacterial and fungal pathogens at the molecular and biochemical levels and exploit this information for crop improvement.

What would he like to cover during the mentoring sessions:

(1) identifying a suitable lab/workplace

(2) funding mechanisms

(3) settling down in Indian system

(4) effective collaborations can help them to establish their lab.

 

Dr. Sriram, Associate Professor, Biology, Azim Premji University

 

Official Website

 

Current Location: Bangalore, India

 

Previous Designation (starting with PhD):

Designation

Institute

PhD

Rockefeller University, USA

Postdoctoral Researcher

Wisconsin Institute of Discovery, USA

Field(s) of Experience: Systems Biology, Undergraduate education in life sciences

A short description of current work:

(1) Undergraduate projects on the nature of computation in Physarum polycephalum

(2) Site-directed mutagenesis of chromoproteins

What would he like to cover during the mentoring sessions:

(1) Identifying collaborators

(2) Figuring out how to navigate systems in India

(3) Undergraduate research

(4) Balancing teaching and research

Dr. Shubhasis Haldar, Associate Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences, S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences

 

Official Website

 

Current Location: Kolkata, India

 

Previous Designation (starting with PhD):

Designation

Institute

PhD

Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB), India

Postdoctoral fellow

Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Munich, Germany

Postdoctoral fellow

School of Engineering, University of California, Merced, USA

Postdoctoral fellow

Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, USA

Assistant Professor

Biology, Ashoka University

Field(s) of Experience: Biophysics

A short description of current work: Our lab work in the interface of physics, chemistry and biology – aiming to understand complex biological phenomenon, starting from force sensor proteins to chaperone biology. One of the main focuses of our lab is to understand the mechanics of force sensors and how it is interlinked with cellular signaling or diseases. Furthermore, our lab is developing novel single molecule methodology to understand the unanswered questions in chaperone biology, such as how HSP90 chaperone regulates cancer or why the over-expression of HSP70 blocks toxic protein aggregates in neurodegenerative diseases. We are also interested in developing high throughput microfluidics screening assays to effectively detect monitor small sub-population and understanding the change in the thermodynamic properties while biomolecules interact with each other.

What would he like to cover during the mentoring sessions:

1. collaborative opportunities in your field

2. job opportunities

3. funding

Dr. Ratna Ghosal, Assistant Professor, Biological and Life Sciences Division, Ahmedabad University

 

 

Official Website

 

Current Location: Ahmedabad, India

 

Previous Designation (starting with PhD):

Designation

Institute

PhD in Ecology

Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, India

Postdoctoral fellow

Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, India

Postdoctoral fellow

Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, USA

Research Associate

Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, USA

Field(s) of Experience: Ecology, Animal Behaviour, Conservation Biology

A short description of current work:

I am trained as an ecologist. My lab works at the intersection of ecology and environment. We try to understand different ecological processes, both at the individual and at the community level, across diverse environment types – ranging from natural to artificial environments. We use different readouts using behavior, molecular and endocrine tools to understand ecological patterns and responses of organisms towards environmental factors. My group works on a wide range of model organisms using a combination of field and lab/captive-based observations and experiments. We strive to apply our findings to resolve real-world problems within the domain of conservation biology.

What would he like to cover during the mentoring sessions:

1. Interviews

2. Funding

3. Professional development

4. Collaborative opportunities in the field of ecology and environment

Dr. Abhinav Kanwal, Assistant Professor, All India Institute of Medical Sciences Bhathinda

 

LinkedIN

 

Current Location: Bhathinda, India

 

Previous Designation (starting with PhD):

Designation

Institute

PhD

DBT-THSTI, India

Postdoctoral fellow

University of Chicago, USA

Assistant Professor

Manipal Academy of Higher Education

Field(s) of Experience: Pharmacology, Epiegentics, Cardiomyopathy, Diabetes

A short description of current work:

(1) Understanding how epigenetics helps in controlling the mitochondrial dynamics in diabetes

(2) How doxorubicin induced late on set of toxicity can be regulated

(3) Adverse drug reaction monitoring in the patients taking medicines

What would he like to cover during the mentoring sessions:

1. collaborative opportunities and 

2. how personal and professional development can be done

Dr. Arindam Mondal, Assistant Professor, IIT-Kharagpur

 

Official Website

 

Current Location: Kharagpur, India

 

Previous Designation (starting with PhD):

Designation

Institute

PhD

University of Calcutta, India

Postdoctoral fellow

University of Virginia, USA

Postdoctoral fellow

University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

Assistant Scientist

University of Wisconsin- Madison, USA

Field(s) of Experience: Virology, Molecular Biology, Molecular Diagnostics

A short description of current work: We are interested in understanding the intricate molecular mechanism by which RNA viruses establish infection in a particular host species. During its life cycle, viruses recruits large number of host factors that facilitate different steps like attachment, entry, replication, transcription, assembly and release. We are studying the molecular basis by which viruses highjacks different host machineries in order to come up with novel therapeutic strategies or prophylactic measures. We are also developing various biosensor for rapid onsite detection of pathogen associated molecular markers and hence diagnoses of infection.

What would he like to cover during the mentoring sessions:

1. interviews

2. collaborative opportunities in his field

3. job opportunities

4. funding

5. personal and professional development

Dr. Avijit Banik, Associate Professor, GITAM (Deemed to be University)

Official Website

LinkedIN Profile

 

Current Location: Visakhapatnam, India

 

Previous Designation (starting with PhD):

Designation

Institute

PhD in Neurology

PGIMER, Chandigarh, India

Postdoctoral fellow in Anatomy

National University of Singapore, Singapore

Postdoctoral fellow in Pharmacology

Emory University, Atlanta, USA

Field(s) of Experience: Neuroscience

A short description of current work: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is associated with substantial medical and societal burden, but, no current therapy is available that can clearly alter the disease progression. Recently the AD research has shifted its gear in mining the neuroinflammatory pathways to find a prudent treatment strategy. At GITAM, as a new faculty I aim to establish an independent research lab to investigate the role of neuroinflammatory pathways in AD neuropathology and cognition in in-vitro & in-vivo systems to identify potential therapeutic targets.

 

What would he like to cover during the mentoring sessions:

  • How to look for job opportunities in India

  • How to start building a network in India before coming back

  • Application procedures

  • Interviews

  • Collaborative opportunities in your field

  • Funding opportunities in your field

  • How to choose your group/students?

  • Personal and Professional Development

  • Financial Responsibilities

  • Cultural and family shock on transition

  • Salary negotiation

  • Child care support/facilities/schools

 

Dr. Athi N Naganathan, Associate Professor, IIT-Madras

Official Website

 

Current Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

 

Previous Designation (starting with PhD):

Designation

Institute

PhD in Biochemistry

University of Maryland, USA

Postdoctoral fellow in Biosciences

CIB-CSIC, Spain

Postdoctoral fellow in Molecular Modeling

Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Barcelona, Spain

Field(s) of Experience: Protein Biophysics, Biomolecules

A short description of current work: We work at the interface of physics, chemistry and biology to understand and address questions related to protein folding, function, allostery, and disorder from the perspective of both experiments and simulations.

 

What would he like to cover during the mentoring sessions:

  • How to look for job opportunities in India

  • How to start building a network in India before coming back

  • Application procedures

  • Interviews

  • Collaborative opportunities in your field

  • Funding opportunities in your field

  • How to choose your group/students?

  • Personal and Professional Development

  • Financial Responsibilities

  • Cultural and family shock on transition

  • Salary negotiation

  • Child care support/facilities/schools

 

Dr. Anindita Dutta, ex-Group Lead, Tata Translational Cancer Research Centre (Current: Remote Research Fellow, University of Surrey, UK)

 


Official Website

 

Current Location: Kolkata, India (remotely working in UK)

 

Previous Designation (starting with PhD):

Designation

Institute

PhD

Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, Jadavpur University, India

Postdoctoral fellow

Kimmel Cancer Center, Thomas Jefferson University, USA

Honorary researcher

Health and medical sciences, University of Manchester, UK

Group lead, Cell biology

Tata Translational Cancer Research Centre, Tata Medical Center, India

Field(s) of Expertise: Cancer, cell biology, 3D organoid, proteomics, clinical informatics

A short description of current work: I have been working as a group lead in cell biology at Tata Translational Cancer Research Centre from 2014 to 2022. Currently working as a research scientist in cancer proteomics and integrative proteogenomics in endometrial cancer at the University of Surrey, UK.

 

What would he like to cover during the mentoring sessions:

  • How to look for job opportunities in India

  • Collaborative Opportunities in your field

  • Financial Responsibilities

  • Child Care Support/facilities/schools

 

Dr. Soumyadip Sett, Assistant Professor, IIT Gandhinagar

 


LinkedIn Profile

 

Current Location: Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India

 

Previous Designation (starting with PhD):

Designation

Institute

PhD in Mechanical Engineering

University of Illinois at Chicago, USA

Postdoctoral fellow in Mechanical Science & Engineering

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

Field(s) of Expertise: Thermo-fluids

A short description of current work: Micro/nanoengineered surfaces for enhanced condensation and thermal management. My research focuses on developing metal-based surfaces and coatings for droplet manipulation and heat transfer applications. Another research focus is in utilizing these novel surfaces for self-cleaning and antifouling applications.

 

What would he like to cover during the mentoring sessions:

  • Collaborative opportunities in his field

  • Application procedures

  • Interviews

  • Funding opportunities in your field

  • How to choose your group/students

 

Dr. Himanshu Gogoi, Assistant Professor, Amity University

LinkedIn Profile

 

Current Location: Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

 

Previous Designation (starting with PhD):

Designation

Institute

PhD

School of Biotechnology, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Postdoctoral fellow

Division of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine, University of Florida, USA

Field(s) of Expertise: Vaccines, pulmonary immunology, immune- metabolism

A short description of current work: Currently, I work on age-related defects in the innate immune cells in mice and their effect on vaccine-induced immune response and devise targeted molecules to target those defects. I also study metabolic alterations in the innate immune cells of aged mice due to which they tend to be unresponsive to vaccinations.

 

What would he like to cover during the mentoring sessions:

  • How to look for job opportunities in India

  • How to start building a network in India before coming back

  • Interviews

  • Application Procedures

 

Dr. Manash Paul, Associate Professor, Manipal Academy of Higher Education

 

LinkedIn Profile

Current Location: Manipal, Karnataka, India

 

Previous Designation (starting with PhD):

Designation

Institute

PhD

Biotechnology, NIPER, Mohali, India

Postdoctoral fellow

MCBR and Pediatrics, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

Project Scientist

Pulmonary, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

Field(s) of Expertise: Stem cells and Cancer

A short description of current work: Stem cell and injury repair, Cancer therapy and early detection

 

What would he like to cover during the mentoring sessions:

  • How to start building a network in India before coming back

  • Interviews

  • Collaborative opportunities in your field

  • Personal and Professional Development

  • How to choose your group/students?

  • Child care support/facilities/schools

  • Cultural and family shock on transition

  •  Salary Negotiations

Dr. Biswarup Basu, Senior Scientific Officer, Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute


LinkedIn Profile

Current Location: Kolkata, West Bengal, India

 

Previous Designation (starting with PhD):

Designation

Institute

PhD

Life Science & Biotechnology, Jadavpur University, West Bengal, India

Postdoctoral fellow

Mouse Cancer Genetics Program, National Cancer Institute (NIH), USA

Assistant Professor

School of Bioscience, Apeejay Stya University, India

Assistant Professor

Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, India

Field(s) of Expertise: Cancer Biology, Neuroimmunology, Tissue injury and regeneration, Nanodelivery of drugs, Genomics

A short description of current work: Dr Basu is engaged in integration of transdisciplinary knowledge into healthcare solutions. He has established intestinal probiotics ( Lactobacillus) as carrier of oral anticancer drugs and shown higher 5FU bioavailability in plasma , better efficacy in preclinical tumors & reduced toxicity, even at suboptimal doses (Science Advances, 2022).He has reported increased in vivo bioavailability of phytochemicals (Life Sciences, 2022),efficient delivery of drug in drug-resistant breast cancer cells (Materials Advances, 2020) and developed nanoinsulin as topical wound healing solution (Nanomedicine, 2019). Basu lab is developing ECM Biomimicking Hydrogels aiming scar free surgical wound healing (ICMR grant 2022, PI) and as drug screening platform for TNBC patients (ICMR grant 2022, Co-PI). Dr Basu is engaged in theranostic nanodelivery of drugs across blood brain barrier to address Glioblastoma and neurocognitive dysfunction (DBT-Ayush grant 2022, PI) and is part of team in ovarian HIPEC clinical trial (SERB-CRG grant 2021, Co-PI). Basu Lab is also evaluating neuronal factors in ovarian cancer progression and predisposition to CIPN (WB-DSTB grant 2022, PI) which will lead to patient stratification ,dose-reduced chemotherapy and potential CIPN inhibitors for a better quality of life. Basu lab has shown utilization of mandi waste to yield anti breast cancer carotenoids (Frontiers in Microbiology,2023) and engaged in evaluation of synthetic compounds (ChemistrySelect, 2020, 2021, Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2019). The lab is also developing AI based digital pathology platforms for clinical guidance & genomic based algorithms for early detection of ovarian cancer and oral cancer prognosis.

 

What would he like to cover during the mentoring sessions:

  • How to start building a network in India before coming back

  • Interviews

  • Funding opportunities in your field

  • Personal and Professional Development

  • How to choose your group/students?

  •  Salary Negotiations

  • How to find a parity between your research ideas and recuiters’ choice of areas

Dr. Pranav, Assistant Professor, VIT Vellore


Website

Current Location: Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

 

Previous Designation (starting with PhD):

Designation

Institute

PhD

Metallurgy Engineering and Materials Science, IIT Indore, India

Postdoctoral fellow

School of Medicine, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA

DST Inspire Faculty

Center for Nanosciences, IIT Kanpur, India

Field(s) of Expertise: Nanobiotechnology

 

A short description of current work: Chiral and biofunctionalized nanomaterials for healthcare applications in particular gene/drug delivery, optical biosensing.

 

What would he like to cover during the mentoring sessions:

  • How to look for job opportunities in India

  • How to start building a network in India before coming back

  • Application Procedures

  • Interviews

  • Collaborative Opportunities in your field

  • Funding opportunities in your field

  • Personal and Professional Development

  • Cultural and family shock on transition

MENTORS IN INDUSTRY

Dr. Raunak Bardia, Researcher, Shell India Markets Private Ltd.

 

LinkedIN

 

Current Location: Bangalore, India

 

Previous Designation (starting with PhD):

Designation

Institute

PhD

University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

Field(s) of Experience: Computational Science, Applied Mathematics, Engineering Software Development, Image Analysis, Rock Petrophysics

A short description of current work: I am currently working with the Scientific Image Analysis & Simulations team in the Digital R&D space of Shell. As part of this team, I am working to more closely integrate simulation modeling, analytical data science, and machine-based learning in the existing workflows of Shell. We work with assets that are spread across the world. Beyond technical expertise, it requires building up economic, commercial, operational, and people aspect of a project or solution.

What would he like to cover during the mentoring sessions:

1. Dispelling of pre-conceived notions

2. Connection with India-based research communities

3. Fostering of collaboration in future.

4. Direct connections for job opportunities

Dr. Tathagata Mukherjee, General Manager, Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd.

 

LinkedIN

 

Current Location: Pune, Maharashtra, India

 

Previous Designation (starting with PhD):

Designation

Institute

PhD

Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, USA

Postdoctoral fellow

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH, USA

Field(s) of Experience: Chemical Biology, Drug Discovery, Product Development, Project Management, Business Development

A short description of current work: Project Management, Grant writing and Business development

What would he like to cover during the mentoring sessions: Any question that mentees might have that when answered can reduce their anxiety when they take the decision to return to India

Dr. Subhadip Das, Senior Scientist, TCG Life Sciences - Kolkata

LinkedIN

 

Current Location: Kolkata, West Bengal, India

 

Previous Designation (starting with PhD):

Designation

Institute

PhD

Dept. of Cancer Biology, CSIR- Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, India

Postdoctoral Fellow

Dept. of Pathology, The Ohio State University, USA

Postdoctoral Fellow

Dept. of Biochemistry, Cancer Care Manitoba, Canada

Scientist

Pharmacology, Glenmark Pharmaceutical Ltd., India

Field(s) of Experience: Oncology

A short description of current work: I lead a team responsible for researching new or modified chemical entities or biosimilars in the field of anti-cancer therapeutics within oncology and immuno-oncology drug discovery. Our research involves exploring multiple oncology-based pharmacology models, including in vitro and in vivo models.

What would he like to cover during the mentoring sessions:

  • How to look for job opportunities in India

  • Application procedures

  • Interviews

  • Cultural and family shock on transition

 

MENTORS IN START-UP SECTOR

Dr. Ved Prakash, Co-Founder and CEO, GeniUs Universal and NutriDocs

 

LinkedIN

 

Current Location: Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

 

Previous Designation (starting with PhD):

Designation

Institute

PhD

Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, USA

Research Scientist

Office of Research, University of Texas at Dallas, USA 

Field(s) of Experience: Entrepreneurship, health and wellness

A short description of current work: My wife and I run 3 businesses. GeniUs Universal focuses upon entrepreneurship education so that other aspiring entrepreneurs get equal opportunity to bring their ideas to a reality, while NutriDocs focuses upon health consulting so that people can stay healthy and focus on bigger goals rather than hospital visits. Intellecta focuses on online education for K12. Our current goal is to support 10 more families by 2030 to accomplish similar level of success so that we can work on worthwhile causes without worrying about basic survival.

What would he like to cover during the mentoring sessions:

How to start building a network in India before coming back

Interviews

Collaborative opportunities in your field

Personal and Professional Development

Financial Responsibilities

Culture and family shock during transition