Profile

• Time Zone

  (GMT +5.5) Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, New Delhi

  
  
• Organization

  Indian Institute of Science Education and Research - Bhopal

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  I am interested in understanding how abiotic factors like climate and landscape and biotic factors like plant-plant interaction and plant-animal interaction affects plant diversity.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  What is best about being a scientist?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 1 here (300 words):

  The best thing about being a scientist is getting to learn new and interesting things every other day. Most of the days, I feel like a detective trying to figure out a 'whodunit' problem and every day, with each experiment and each discovery you are closing in on your suspect.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  What is your favorite plant? Why?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 2 here (300 words):

  That would be Hedychium spicatum or the spiked ginger lily (Of course, I'm biased since I have been working with this plant for the past 3 years). It has beautiful fragrant white flowers and it is one of those plants for which most of the species concepts doesn't make any sense.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  Can you share a funny/interesting lab or field story?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 3 here (300 words):

  This incident happened sometime in July 2018, I was doing fieldwork in NE India with my colleague and we were doing some pollination experiments. We finished bagging inflorescences and suddenly we heard a noise. We looked back and we saw a huge herd of cattle galloping towards us, we were super scared, we took all our belongings and took shelter above a huge rock. And, the worst part was not being chased by a herd of cattle but getting all the inflorescences that we spend hours bagging being eaten by the cows!! they took the inflorescences along with the pollination bag, ate the inflorescence and then chewed out the pollination bags.

  
  
• Capacity: How many teams at a time are you comfortable working with?

  2

  
  

Recent Posts

Team Broccoli Aleena Xavier Apr 12, 2023

Hi Matthieu, Nick and Caleb,

It's great to know that your plants have sprouted. Many things can go wrong when watering the plants from the top. For example, the seedlings can get dislodged if you water it with a lot of force. What else can be…

more

Hi Matthieu, Nick and Caleb,

It's great to know that your plants have sprouted. Many things can go wrong when watering the plants from the top. For example, the seedlings can get dislodged if you water it with a lot of force. What else can be the advantage of bottom watering compared to top watering?

Team Broccoli Aleena Xavier Apr 4, 2023

Hi Matthieu,

It is a good observation. Did you notice the surface soil to be too dry by the time you checked on it after the weekend ? What else do you think might affect the germination of the seeds?

Team Broccoli Aleena Xavier Mar 21, 2023

Hi Matthieu,

That is an interesting question! I was intrigued by how certain plants are found only in certain places, not others. This made me question what determines the distribution of these plants and how geography plays a role in the plant…

more

Hi Matthieu,

That is an interesting question! I was intrigued by how certain plants are found only in certain places, not others. This made me question what determines the distribution of these plants and how geography plays a role in the plant composition in a specific place. That is how I ended up studying biogeography.