RittikDeb

My broad interest is to understand the factors influencing biological variance. For my PhD (at CES, IISc, with Prof. Rohini Balakrishnan) I worked on sexual selection in crickets to understand how mate choice shapes signal evolution. I primarily used bioacoustics, behavioural ecology (both in laboratory as well as in field), computer simulation and statistics as tools for my research. After my PhD I wanted to incorporate genomic data in my research to address more fundamental evolutionary questions. I thus started to work in Deepa’s lab and was introduced to the fascinating world of gut microbes and their myriad interactions with insect hosts. I want to coalesce my earlier understanding of sexual selection with my present research to understand how microbes can influence sexually selected traits in hosts. Apart from this I am also interested in host-vector-pathogen interactions and want to understand this tripartite relationship from an evolutionary viewpoint.

I also read a lot (fiction and non-fiction alike), and I enjoy watching good (and bad) movies, street photography and learning newer things (be it abstract art or abstract mathematics).