Deepa Agashe, at NCBS in Bangalore, has been awarded one of three “SERB Women Excellence” Awards and was recognized directly by the president. Not that president, but the Indian President, Shri Ram Nath Kovind. As they call out on their website:
Dr Deepa Agashe is a biologist, working at the interface of evolutionary biology, ecology, and molecular biology. Using diverse tools such as experimental evolution, genomics, molecular analyses and phylogenetics, she aims to understand how bacteria and insects adapt to new environments. Dr. Agashe received her Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology from Abasaheb Garware College (University of Pune) in 2003, followed by a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, the USA in 2009. Her thesis work showed that genetic diversity could stabilize animal populations and facilitate adaptation to new niches. During her postdoctoral work at Harvard University, USA, she proved that so-called “silent” mutations could have enormous effects on bacterial evolution. In 2012, she returned to India to lead a research group at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS–TIFR), where her team is dedicated to unravelling the causes and mechanisms of evolution.
Way to go Deepa! Yet another lab alum making us all proud.
