Location:
CES Seminar Hall
Speaker:  Prof. Amitabh Joshi (FNA, Evolutionary and Organismal Biology Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru)
Title:Â Experimental Evolution and Ecology in the laboratory
Date, Venue, Time: 07th February, 2018. CES Seminar Hall, 3rd Floor, New Biological Sciences Building, IISc. 03:00 PM
Abstract:
It is often believed the ecological and evolutionary timescales are very different and that it is difficult to study ecological and evolutionary processes together in a rigorous and controlled manner. However as the experience of the last few decades shows, experimental ecology and evolution studies in laboratory settings provide us with the ability to rigorously examine such phenomena and test hypotheses about evolutionary and ecological mechanisms, and their interactions, in a manner that is not possible in the wild. In this talk, I will discuss a few examples from work in my laboratory over the past twenty years to illustrate the power of this approach, and underscore the point that the evolutionary process is far more subtle and responsive to minor changes in ecology than is often thought to be the case.
About the speaker: Professor Amitabh Joshi is particularly interested in the evolution of adaptations to crowding, and evolution of developmental rates and rates of ageing, and in the interplay of local dynamics and migration patterns/rates in affecting metapopulation dynamics and stability. Much of the work in his group has focussed on (a) the ecological context created by crowding and its attendant competition, (b) how this context affects the evolution of diverse traits like developmental rates, fecundity schedules, feeding behaviour, stress resistance and lifespan, (c) the molecular/developmental/ biochemical correlates of these traits, and (d) how these life-history changes can affect the demographic attributes of populations and the stability of their dynamics. In addition, he has also worked on the evolution of extreme ecological specialization, the evolutionary maintenance of sexual reproduction, coevolution in competing species, and evolutionary aspects of circadian rhythms.
Professor Joshi has served on the editorial boards of Resonance, journal of Biosciences, International Journal of Evolutionary Biology and Journal of theoretical Biology, and was Chief Editor of the Journal of genetics during 2008-14. He is presently Editor-of-Publications of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bengaluru.
Professor Joshi is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad, and the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bengaluru. He was a Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies, berlin, in 2001. He is also a recipient of the Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award (Biological Sciences, 2009), Young leader in Science & Technology (Lakshmipat Singhania National Leadership Awards, 2010), and JC Bose National Fellow.
Professor Joshi was elected to the Fellowship of Indian National Science Academy in the year 2011.
About the lecture: The Prof. Har Swarup Memorial Lecture was established in 1981 to commemorate the memory of Prof. Har Swarup, a distinguished Fellow of the Academy known for his research on endocrinology, physiology and developmental biology. The Lectureship is awarded once in three years since 2005 for outstanding contributions in Animal Sciences.
Coffee/Tea: Before The Talk.
Organisers: Indian National Science Academy (Bangalore Chapter), Ecology Students’ Society.
All are cordially invited.
