Columns

• My PhD journey as a woman wildlife researcher on a motorbike

  

  Brinky Desai, a PhD student at Ahmedabad University, shares her challenges as a woman researcher conducting fieldwork on Mugger crocodiles in remote areas of Gujarat. In the first article of this year's PhD Cafe series, she describes the physical and mental strain of fieldwork, particularly during the COVID pandemic, as well as the challenges of working with crocodiles, including navigating hygiene facilities as a woman researcher in the field.

  Posted on May 01, 2023 in Ecology, Women in Science & Personal Experience

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• Let’s not miss the grasses for the trees: In conversation with Mahesh Sankaran

  

  Mahesh Sankaran is Professor at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru where he heads the Community and Ecosystems Ecology lab. He is the recipient of the Infosys Prize 2021 for Life Sciences, the first ecologist to have won this prestigious award. In this interview, he talks about his work on grasslands and climate change, and on winning the Infosys Prize. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

  Posted on Mar 07, 2022 in Ecology, Policy & Advice

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• Common misconceptions in biology: What are habitats, microhabitats and niches?

  

  Speak of comfort zones! In this article, Abhijeet Bayani, a field biologist and an educator at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, disentangles the meanings and purposes of three terms commonly used in ecological studies to discuss the space in which an organism thrives – habitats, microhabitats and niches.

  Posted on Aug 30, 2021 in Ecology, Wildlife Biology & Education

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• Common misconceptions in biology: Species richness and diversity are the same?

  

  What’s the measure of species diversity of a habitat? Is it the number of inhabitants? Is it the number of species? Or is it the presence of a rare species? In this article, field biologist Abhijeet Bayani throws light on how he approaches this question of species ‘diversity’ in his classroom (a.k.a nature), while ensuring that his undergraduate students do not confuse it with a very related concept of species ‘richness’.

  Posted on Jan 11, 2021 in Ecology, Conservation Biology, Wildlife Biology, Teaching, Undergraduate & Education

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• Reading popular literature helps build disciplinary literacy - An example from conservation science

  

  Andrea D. Phillott, Professor in Environmental Studies, teaches Conservation Biology, Ecology, and Environmental Studies at FLAME University, Pune. In this article, she writes about an innovative approach she has followed to develop disciplinary literacy in her students viz., assigning them readings from popular literature, both fiction and non-fiction, pertaining to conservation science.

  Posted on Jan 27, 2020 in Ecology, Conservation Biology & Undergraduate

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• Café Oikos: Ecology & conservation straight from the horse’s mouth

  

  Café Oikos, a volunteer-driven, not-for-profit initiative, is the brainchild of engineer-turned-ecologists Anisha Jayadevan and Shishir Rao. It is a free and open public event regularly held at Bengaluru bookstores or cafés wherein people from all walks of life can come to learn about ecology and conservation research directly from active scientists. In this article, Anisha writes about how Café Oikos came to be, and what it aims to achieve.

  Posted on Sep 13, 2019 in Ecology, Conservation Biology & Science communication

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• Talk with teachers: Collaborating with a senior teacher can facilitate faculty mentoring

  

  We interviewed a behavioural ecologist passionate about teaching. Manjari Jain shares her experience of getting undergraduates interested in biology. From her struggles of establishing a lab come forth suggestions on balancing the myriad responsibilities of a young faculty.

  Posted on Jun 21, 2019 in Ecology, Teaching, Young Investigators & Mentorship

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