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Shreyas Gopalakrishnan

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Michael Desai (OEB/Physics)

About Me

I am from Chennai, a hot coastal city in South India. I attended the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore for 4 years to obtain my undergraduate degree, majoring in Biology and minoring in Physics. I wished to be at the frontier of knowledge production (rather than only apply known results) and valued curiosity over utility in picking a topic to study and the obvious choice of a field of study on exerting these criteria was science. My introduction to science at the university level was very conventional, hence, I became interested in interdisciplinary areas; specifically, in applying mathematical and physical approaches to explain biological phenomena.

My current area of interest is studying eco-evolution in simple laboratory systems. My work so far has largely been at a phenotypic level with limited insight at the molecular level and hence broadly, over the next five years, I want to study a problem across scales and build a mathematical framework for the same, as a source of intuition and not just numerical verification. My first goal is to identify a smaller area of research with an abundance of quantitatively and experimentally interesting questions. Also, since I lack experience in teaching and publishing, I am excited to develop and hone skills to undertake both effectively.

Like most people my age, my only real hobby is browsing the internet. I also enjoy playing board games, reading comic books, and trying new food. My only (albeit unimpressive) talent is that I have a good memory.