User:Intrepid Dragonfly/sandbox


 * 1) Nandini Harinath

Nandini Harinath is a rocket scientist at ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) Satellite Centre in Bengaluru. She is a part of the Mars Orbiter Mission, Maangalyaan. She has co-authored a research paper on mission planning, analysis and operations—Outline of key components.

https://www.shethepeople.tv/blog/nandini-harinath-operations-director/

ISRO was the first job that Nandini applied to and now it’s been 20 years. She has worked on 14 missions over 20 years at ISRO. She is the Project Manager, Mission Designer and served as deputy operations director on the Mars Orbiter Mission, also called Mangalyaan.


 * 1) Parvathi Basrur

https://www.guelphmercury.com/news-story/2789772-guelph-loses-leading-veterinary-scientist-mama-basrur-/


 * 1) SciPol

Frontiers for young minds is an open source, kid-friendly journal. It hopes to encourage analytical thinking and introduce kids mainly middle-schoolers to the scientific method by playing a role in the review and publishing process. The two main types of articles published in the journal are kid-friendly versions of recently-published articles by the authors of the study or a review article that explains a core concept in a field. The current topics covered in the journal are on: Neuroscience, Astronomy and Space Science, Biodiversity, Health, Earth and its resources and Math.

The journal publishes cutting-edge research and allows budding young scientists, from ages 8 to 15 years old, to participate in the publishing process. It has won awards for its review process, easy-to-navigate website, informative visual aids including colorful cartoons, and kid-friendly, accessible writing.

Established scientists write kid-friendly articles on either core concepts or new discoveries in their fields. To make the scientific research comprehensible for the journal's late elementary and middle school audiences, the articles rely heavily on key words and glossary sections for scientific nomenclature.

The manuscript undergoes a preliminary evaluation by the editors of the journal and is then assigned to a Young mind/Science mentor pair for a review. After the review, the article is validated by the editors of the journal and is published online and freely available.

After the submission passes a preliminary evaluation by an adult FYP editor, school-aged children, then, decide whether the articles should be published. Alongside a science mentor, a student from the 3rd to 10th grade reviews the articles and provides feedback about the papers' clarity and accessibility. Then, the original writers, science mentors, and adult FYM editors collaborate to revise the article based on the children's comments.

According to the journal's founders Sabine Kastner and Robert T. Knight, the goal of this process is to expose young children to a wide range of current scientific endeavors, the scientific method and procedures, the review process of scientific articles.

Young Reviewers

Kids between the age of 8 - 15 years work with their assigned Science mentors to read through the manuscript and offer feedback on the readability and accessibility of the article and recommend changes,

Science Mentors

Researchers, late-stage PhD students, postdocs, and anyone with a background in science and scientific outreach can apply to be a mentor. Science Mentors work with young reviewers to help them with the review process.

Associate Editors


 * 1) Wiki Women in Science Scholars & Scientists program

Radimilahy was a doctoral researcher at the Sorbonne University in France between 1981 and 1985, where she studied prehistoric and protohistoric ethnology. Her thesis explored ancient iron-working in Madagascar. She then moved to the University of Uppsala where she studied for a second doctorate, which she was awarded in 1998. This second research project examined the town of Mahilaka, a medieval town in north west Madagascar. After completing these research projects, Radimilahy has continued to undertake field work at multiple sites in Madagascar and use preventative archeology to protect at-risk sites.

In addition to research, she has worked on the collection of Chinese ceramics held at the university museum, an important indicator of trade across the Indian Ocean. She has also spoken out about the need for preventative conservation at sites in Madagascar and the importance of communities being involved in that process. She has held prominent memberships and positions on different scientific and archeological societies, including being the chair for six years at the International Council of Museums(ICOM). Professor Radimilahy plays an active role in teaching and mentorship, and provides guidance and inspiration to her students, and the younger generation in Madagascar. As co-editor of People, Contacts, and the Environment in the African Past she enabled "a new generation of African archaeologists" to present their research to wider audiences.

Radimilahy's monograph Mahilaka was described as "a major contribution to African and Indian Ocean archaeology" by Mike Parker Pearson. She has acted as principle or co-investigator on a number of projects, including 'Sealinks' a partnership between academics from the Universities of Oxford, Bristol, Michigan, and Sydney and Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Antananarivo, which was designed to investigate early links between Madagascar and southeast Asia. She has also co-ordinated the MAGE program of genetic and ethnolinguistic research developed by the Universities of Bordeaux and the University of Toulouse.

Rohini Balakrishnan is an Indian bioacoustics expert. She is a senior Professor and Chair of the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. Her research focuses on animal behavior through the lens of animal communication and bioacoustics.

Balakrishnan has a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and a Master’s in Zoology. She received her PhD in behavior genetics in 1991 from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, India. She was the first Ph.D. student of Veronica Rodrigues, an Indian geneticist. She then moved into the field of behavioral ecology, studying acoustic communication in animals and carried out postdoctoral research at McGill University, Canada, from 1993-1996, followed by a second postdoc at the University of Erlangen, Germany (1996-1998). She joined IISc, Bangalore in 1998 where she is currently Professor and Chair of the Centre for Ecological Sciences.

Balakrishnan's current research is aimed at understanding the causes and consequences of animal behavior using acoustic communication. Her lab studies behavior and the ecological pressures that shape behavior in several field sites located in the tropical forests of southern India. This work is primarily focused on crickets and bats in the Kudremukh National Park, elephants in Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary and songbirds at the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Sanctuary. Her lab was the first to study vocal communication in the greater racket-tailed drongo. Using acoustic communication and behavior, her research explores several themes: signal mechanics and physiology of the sound-producing cricket and the auditory behavior of the receiving insect. Her work also looks at the foraging strategies and predator-prey interactions as well as reproductive choices and mate selection.

In addition to research, she is also interested in developing and validating databases of acoustic signals of various species to facilitate identification. This enables periodic biodiversity monitoring using an automated recorder installed in an environment allowing for non-invasive sampling. Her team has built libraries of over 200 elephant calls and recording over 90 species of birds.Two species of cricket discovered in Mexico and in Kerala, India have been named Oecanthus rohiniae (Journal of Orthoptera Research, Feb 2021) and Teleogryllus rohini (pending publication) in her honor. Balakrishnan has also discovered several new species of crickets including Prozvenella bangalorensis at the IISc campus in Bangalore.

Selected publications

 * Deb, R., Modak, S. & Balakrishnan, R. (2020) Baffling: a condition-dependent alternative mate attraction strategy using self-made tools in tree crickets. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 20202229 (in press). https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.2229
 * Torsekar, V. R. & Balakrishnan, R. (2020). Sex differences in alternative reproductive tactics in response to predation risk in tree crickets. Functional Ecology 34, 2326-2337. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13652
 * Buxton, R.T., Agnihotri, S., Robin, V.V., Goel, A. and Balakrishnan, R. (2018). Acoustic indices as rapid indicators of avian diversity in different land-use types in an Indian biodiversity hotspot. Journal of Ecoacoustics, 2, GWPZVD (1-17).
 * Balakrishnan, R. (2016). Behavioral ecology of insect acoustic communication. In: Insect Hearing Eds.: Pollack, G. S., Mason, A. C., Popper, A., Fay, R. R., Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, Springer-Verlag, New York.
 * Rajaraman, K., Godthi, V., Pratap, R. & Balakrishnan, R. (2015) A novel acoustic-vibratory multimodal duet. Journal of Experimental Biology 218, 3042-3050. doi:10.1242/jeb.122911
 * Jain, M., Diwakar, S., Bahuleyan, J., Deb, R. & Balakrishnan, R. (2014) A rain forest dusk chorus: Cacophony or sounds of silence? Evolutionary Ecology 28, 1-22.
 * Agnihotri S, Sundeep PV, Seelamantula CS, Balakrishnan R. Quantifying vocal mimicry in the greater racket-tailed drongo: a comparison of automated methods and human assessment. PLoS One. 2014 Mar 6;9(3):e89540. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089540. PMID: 24603717; PMCID: PMC3945749.