Personal Data

Citizenship Indian
Place and Date of Birth Pune, Maharashtra, India
Languges Marathi (mother-tongue), English, German, Hindi

Recognition & Funding

Recent

October 2023  
Funding from Bayerische Forschungsallianz Fonds 863050 to cooperate with Dr. Linh Phuong Nguyen (University of Fribourg, Switzerland) ‘‘Ueber multiple Infektionen und Wirtsmanipulation von Parasiten mit komplexen Lebenszyklen’’
   
April 2022  
Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag (TAB) Invited as a scientific expert to attend the discussion - TA im Dialog: Impfungen und Gene Drives gegen Malaria
2021-2024  
Marie Curie Innovative Training Network EvoGames+ , Theoretical Developments and Applications in Evolutionary Games
2019-2022  
KAKENHI Project, Japan (with Jai Denton) Project 19K06795 - Understanding How The Environment Shapes Mutualism

Previous

2020-2021  
Bundesamt für Naturschutz (Federal Agency for Nature Conservation), Germany Original Project extension - Potential risks of synthetic gene-drive for monitoring.
2019-2020  
Institute for Advanced Study, Toulouse, France Visiting Fellowship (Bridging Evolutionary and Economic principles especially in agriculture)
2019-2020  
Bundesamt für Naturschutz (Federal Agency for Nature Conservation), Germany Original Project - Potential risks of synthetic gene-drive for monitoring.
2014-2016  
Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund, Associate Investigator with Paul Rainey: “Lineage selection and evolution of cancer”
2012-2014  
DFG Priority Program SPP 1590 Principal Investigator grant - “Probabilistic Structures in Evolution”
2011  
Otto Hahn Medal Max Planck Society

Academic Positions

Current positions

2023- Professor for Theoretical Biology, Center for Computational and Theoretical Biology, Würzburg
2016- Group Leader, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany
2016- Full Member, Kiel Evolution Center, Kiel, Germany

Post-doctoral experience

2014 - 2016 Post doctoral researcher, New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
2011 - 2014 Post doctoral researcher, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany

Visiting researcher

  • Max Planck Institute for Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
  • Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Santa Barbara, U.S.A.
  • Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, U.S.A.

  • National Centre For Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India

  • Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India

Reviewing & Board memberships

  • Editorial Board
    • Scientific Reports
    • PLoS Computational Biology
    • BioPhysMath
    • Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
  • Committees
    • International Max Planck Research School
    • PhD thesis evaluation committee member, Massey University
    • L’ORÉAL Austria - Fellowship for Young Female Scientists in Basic Research
    • Santa Fe Institute Complex Systems Summer School
  • Reviewer for DFG research grants

Education

2011    
Doctorate in Natural Sciences Christian Albrechts University of Kiel, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Thesis “Evolutionary dynamics on multi-dimensional fitness landscapes” Advisor Dr. Arne Traulsen Grade Summa cum laude
2008    
Master of Science in Bioinformatics Sikkim Manipal University of Health Medical and Technological Sciences, National Center for Biological Science, Bangalore, India Thesis “Ab initio calculations in the HGPRT active site and the analysis of select mutations” Advisor Dr. Mrinalini Puranik
2005    
Bachelor of Science in Zoology and Biotechnology Fergusson College, Pune, India -