News

Sachin has been awarded the Small Research Grant (spring 2024) from the British Ecological Society, London, for his work on co-flowering communities in the shola grasslands.

Additionally, he was also awarded a seed grant from the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (2024), for his work on flower-cheater dynamics in the southern Western Ghats, India.

Tejashwi joins the lab as a PhD student for the monsoon intake of 2024.

A very warm welcome!

Manish attended the International Union for the Study of Social Insects to give an oral talk at Laussane, Switzerland. (7th-11th July 2024)

Sachin attended the International Botanical Congress to give a poster presentation at IFEMA, Madrid, Spain. (21st to 27th July 2024)

Dr. Asmi Jezeera rejoins the lab as a post-doctoral researcher. She will be working on understanding the effect of pesticides on the native honey bee species in India.

A very warm welcome to you!

Sajesh is awarded the HFSP fellowship to carry out his post-doctoral research work at Western University, under Dr. Natasha Mhatre.

We wish him all the very best.

Sudeep receives the ISEB travel grant to attend the 19th ISEB Congress in Melbourne, Australia. This will allow him to present his work on the floral constancy of Apis dorsata to the international community.

We are very happy for him and wish him all the best.

Amal attended the Sixth Bangalore School on Population Genetics and Evolution at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences. The school spanned over two weeks from 12th Feb to 23rd Feb 2024, to teach experimental evolution, molecular evolution, and population genetics.

Sajesh gets a post-doctoral fellowship in Dr. Natasha Mhatre’s Lab at the Western university, Canada. We wish him all the best for his work! See you soon!

Sajesh Vijayan successfully defended his Ph.D. Thesis on the 14^th of February 2024. His thesis was on understanding the behavioral and visual ecology of the Asian giant honeybee Apis dorsata. His work involved both behavioral and field-based studies of his study species. The defense lasted for more than an hour and was very engaging. He has successfully paved his way to the scientific field of honeybees! Congratulations Sajesh, may you mentor more bee enthusiasts.

      

 

Picture: Dr. Sajesh with Prof. Gadagkar and Prof. Hema and a Beehive (Left), The lab dinner for Dr. Sajesh’s defense (Right).

 

Prof. Raghavendra Gadagkar gave a talk on the “Division of Labour in the Indian Paper Wasp Ropalidia marginata”. He gave insights into how reproductive and non-reproductive division of labour are established in newly founded colonies and maintained in established colonies. He also spoke about the decentralised regulation of dominance behaviour and foraging regulation. Subsequently, he also spoke on how excess food reduces dominance behaviour and starvation increases dominance behaviour in the study species. He finally concluded by shedding light on how the process of science is as important as the product.

Picture: Prof. Gadagkar giving the talk

Pic courtesy: Sachin Bhaskar