Thresiamma Varghese shares the joys of discovering and preserving critters It was a rainy day and piercing cold winds swept through the third floor of the new Biological Sciences building. I pushed open the creaky museum door, stepping into the big, dimly lit room. It was warm inside, and I could smell the […]
Student conference has been fostering India’s conservation community for 14 years “How many of you have been chased by an elephant?” is not a typical question you’d expect to hear at a conference. But it seems to fit right in at this one; many people raise their hands, some laugh. Standing at the front […]
Harini Nagendra is a Professor of Ecological Sciences at Azim Premji University, Bangalore. She also leads the university’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability. Over the past 25 years, Harini has been studying the impact of urbanisation on both the ecology of a city and its people. For her interdisciplinary research, she has received many […]
From assisting Prof Madhav Gadgil in his field work, to retiring as the librarian of the Division of Biological Sciences, Yashwant Kanade looks back at almost four decades with IISc I was born on 16 January, 1962 in Sirsi, Uttara Kannada. After finishing primary school, even though there was a private school near my […]
Most gardens on campus are looked after by the IISc Nursery, but some office staff have taken it upon themselves to add their own green touch If you visit the Office of Communications (OoC) at IISc in the sultry months of April and May, you’ll probably notice the bright and colourful flowers in the […]
Field assistants are critical yet underappreciated members of the ecological research community When Raman Sukumar went to the forests of Mudumalai to study elephants for his PhD in 1978, he wanted a local person familiar with the terrain, and experienced at navigating elephant country to guide him. The forest rangers put him in touch […]
The evolutionary biologist recounts his love for the campus of IISc which has also served as a laboratory for his research The year was 1963, and it was my first week in Bangalore. As a 10-year-old boy, I was travelling with my parents and my two siblings, in the Bangalore Transport Service (BTS) bus no. […]
A scientist and his small team of volunteers have steered the cause of plants by creating a unique database, an important first step in the battle for species conservation and habitat restoration On the third floor of IISc’s Biological Sciences building is a room which, at first glance, may seem like a computer science lab. […]
The Institute has many unsung heroes, whose contributions often go unnoticed. One among them is KA Ponnanna, a former security guard. He is often called upon when people in IISc encounter a mongoose in their lab or a snake in their homes. Ponnanna recounts his childhood in Kodagu in Karnataka, and his journey from being […]
Satish Dhawan was the longest-serving Director, who transformed the Institute in many ways – from reorganising academic departments to establishing new centres and encouraging the Institute community to embrace an interdisciplinary research approach. In 1951, Satish Dhawan joined the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) as a Senior Scientific Officer, and within a few years, he […]
