Might be of interest.
For YETI
Debabrata Phukon
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Madhavi Latha <madhavi@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2019, 4:03 pm
Subject: Talk by Dr. Karthick Balasubramanian on 25th September 2019
(Wednesday) at 3:45 pm
To: Madhavi Latha <madhavi@xxxxxxxxx>
*My Experiments with Truth - A Story of Another Gandhi from India, **and
his glass houses*
*Karthick Balasubramanian*
Scientist, Biodiversity & Paleobiology Group,
Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, Maharashtra
*Abstract*
Understanding of the biodiversity is minimal in many tropical regions such
as populous country like India. Most of the biodiversity explorations in
India are biased towards “charismatic” flora and fauna and information on
“so-called” lower taxa are limited. The smaller groups, especially the
microscopic organisms go unnoticed, and even the basic information is
lacking. Diatoms are one such group of lower plants, commonly known as
“glass houses” because of their intricate silica cell walls. They offer an
exceptional ecosystem service by producing ~25% of global oxygen
production, but the details on diatom biology and is rather meagre.
In this talk, I narrate my story of exploring diatom taxonomy and ecology
of the Western Ghats. This has lead to a meeting an exceptional
personality, H.P Gandhi, who hails from then Bombay Presidency. Gandhi
described around 300 new taxa of freshwater and fossil diatoms from India
and documented diatom taxonomy and ecology for the first time from this
region. The part of the talk explores the story of finding Gandhi and
recovering his collections and archiving it for future works. Further, I
also highlight some of his significant findings and his opinion about the
Indian science fraternity. Finally, I conclude the talk with my scrimmages
of being taxonomist and an ecologist.
*Biography*
Karthick Balasubramanian is a Scientist at the Biodiversity and
Palaeobiology Group, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune. He studied the
community structure of streams of the Western Ghats for his Ph.D. He later
in 2010 he joined Natural History Museum of the University of Colorado at
Boulder for his postdoctoral research where he studied the taxonomy of
endemic diatoms of the Indian subcontinent. In 2013 he joined the
North-West University, South Africa to work on the endemic diatoms of
Southern Africa. His laboratory is currently studying the diversity and
distribution of diatoms across the Indian subcontinent and application of
this information in the monitoring of water quality, paleoenvironment
reconstruction, and environmental education. He had discovered more than 30
new species and two new genera of diatoms from Africa, America, and Asia.
He is also involved with environmental educational activities using diatoms
as an educational tool. He writes science communication in Tamil with focus
on biodiversity research.
--
*Regards Aravind
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
N. A. Aravind Madhyastha, PhD, FLS*
Fellow (Associate Professor)
Suri Sehgal Center for Biodiversity and Conservation,
Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE),
Royal Enclave, Srirampura, Jakkur PO
Bangalore 560064, India
Phone: +91-80-23635555 Extn: 123
Fax: +91-80-23530070
Mobile: +91-94481 24570
Web: https://www.atree.org/users/dr-aravind-madhyastha
<http://www.atree.org/aravindna>
Member: IUCN SSC Mollusc Specialist Group
Member: IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group
http://scholar.google.co.in/citations?hl=en&user=LgDka8oAAAAJ
_____
Follow ATREE @:
www.facebook.com/ATREE.org
https://twitter.com/atree_org
www.youtube.com/user/ATREEBangalore
https://www.instagram.com/atreeblr
--
__________________________________________________________________
Madhavi Latha G
The Academy for Conservation Science and Sustainability Studies
Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE),
Royal Enclave, Srirampura, Jakkur PO
Bangalore 560064, India
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Phone: +91-80-23635555 Extn: 121
Fax: +91-80-23530070
E-mail: madhavi@xxxxxxxxx
_________________________________________________________________
--
__________________________________________________________________
Madhavi Latha G
The Academy for Conservation Science and Sustainability Studies
Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE),
Royal Enclave, Srirampura, Jakkur PO
Bangalore 560064, India
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Phone: +91-80-23635555 Extn: 121
Fax: +91-80-23530070
E-mail: madhavi@xxxxxxxxx
_________________________________________________________________