Project associates and assistants

Current project associates and assistants

PRAKRUTI MEHTA, Project associate

Indian Institute of Science (Feb 2024-)

With a fascination in ecology, and interest in the environment, I completed my master’s in environmental science. With a diverse background in studying birds, butterflies, macro fungi and invasive snails, I have honed my skills in ecology and conservation. Currently, at the PoCo Eco lab, I am delving deeper into the community ecology of parasitoids, helping with sample collection, and rearing insects, including butterflies and parasitoids. I am eager to understand the complexities of these ecosystems and the effect of biotic and abiotic factors on these communities. In addition to my scientific curiosity, I’m a cat parent to two adorable fur babies and a major bookworm.

Girish G, Assistant

Indian Institute of Science (Sept. 2024-)

Girish wears many hats in the lab, from office work to transportation, to help with research. One day he may be going around campus chasing down signatures and the next day he’ll be helping a student collect black buck droppings from the field for her research.

Past project associates and assistants (since the lab has been at IISc)

TAPASYA THAPA, Project Associate. Indian Institute of Science (March 2022- October 2025)

Tapasya wasp brought up in a small city, Dehradun. She did her MSc in Biotechnology in 2018 and joined the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun where she gained experience in conservation genetics tools and techniques. She started working in the PoCoEco lab when it was just an empty room in 2022. Since then she has had many roles in the lab, including the molecular phylogenetic work toward identifying the diverse parasitoids associated with Lepidoptera feeding on Ructaceae. As of Nov., 2025 she is PhD student at the University of Tartu in Estonia.

MALAY PANDEY, Project Associate, Indian Institute of Science (April-Oct 2025)

During his B.Sc. at Azim Premji Uni., Malay explored habitat selection by cockroaches. For his M.Sc. thesis, in Ben-Gurion Uni., he explored foraging responses and physiological consequences of crude-oil pollution on gerbils. Additionally, he worked on the social dynamics of Free-Ranging Dogs in Bengaluru. He also studied maternal investments in egg sac construction by widow spiders. In the PoCoEco Lab, he worked on the Asian Citrus Psyllid project studying monitoring methods, and the natural enemy community. As of Nov., 2025 he is a PhD student in Italy.

VANSHIKA PAL, Research assistant IISc (May 2023 – July 2024)

Vanshika Pal completed her education till post grad from University of Lucknow. I In PoCo Eco she surveyed butterfly behaviour and diversity as a function of weather, and worked on behavior of Trichogramma parasitoid wasps with respect to competition. Now she is a PhD scholar at Ahmedabad University.