I was attracted by the beauty, symmetry and logic of the biological systems and it is the very reason why I have taken Biology as Majors for my Bachelors. During my 3 years of learning Biology at St. Pious X College, Kannur University I appreciated the importance of a green world surrounding us as the vast majority of photosynthetic biodiversity factory of the world! I developed a zest to study the abiotic as well as biotic interactions involved in the perplexing processes of life. During the summer of 2001, I was offered the 'Rajiv Gandhi Summer Fellowships" in the field of ‘abiotic stress responses’ which allowed me to work with a Caltech alumnus, Prof. M.K. Mathew on the fundamental concept: membrane Biophysics of salt tolerance in a marine microalgae- Dunaliella salina. I was unable to characterize Na+/H+ antiporter during my stay at National center for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research- TIFR due to unavailability of large algal biomass for good membrane prep. I switched my work to optimizing growth conditions for the microalgae, and I had fabricated my own design of Photobioreactor later for my Masters dissertation at UniMad. I was inspired by the symmetry of collagen molecules which lead me to this design consisting of homologous intertwined multi helices of pyrex glass tubes. The design was found to greatly improve the biomass productivity, and together with my mentor Dr. D. Nedumaran, I filed for an Indian patent for this design.
While finishing my masters, I had a strange idea: "is there any organism on earth which can utilize energy from the fractions other than narrow visible light of solar spectrum?" which was unfortunately called as ‘outrageous’ by none other than one of my teachers. A short briefing on these hypothetical organisms-I named them, 'radio autotrophs'- fetched me that year the 'Indian Academy of Science Fellowships' and I got a chance to spend one summer with Prof. Naqvi and Prof. Ramaiah at National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, India. It was under the direction of Prof. S. Raghukumar that I was able to prove autotrophic carbon assimilation by a marine protista: Thraustochytrid which has an intracellular UV-Fluorescing compound. Dr. Ramaiah also directed me to an independent study on biodiversity of unculturable photosynthetic picoplankton and the molecular ecology. After being awarded Junior Research Fellowships (by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Govt of India), I continued to work with Dr. Nedumaran, University of Madras on numerical modeling of marine primary productivity. Years of extra curricular math and computer learning directed by my father helped me much to work in this exciting field. My challenge has now become how to increase resolution of FEM matrices developed to simulate the ecological systems in order to achieve maximum fidelity. I will always be grateful to Dr. Nedumaran, who introduced me to the world of MatLab-5, FORTRAN, and the quantitative approach for the ecological problems.
In 2005, I have been awarded Monbukagakusho: MEXT scholarships for my doctoral studies at Japan. I am currently working as a MEXT International Research Student ( Kokuhi Ryugakusei) with Prof. Masanori Hiraoka at USA-Marine Biological Institute, Kochi University, Japan. The immediate goal of the graduate program in which I am presently associated with, is to understand the Biology and environmental significance of marine microorganisms. It is for many years that I am curious to work on biological oceanography with an interdisciplinary perspective. I was attracted to this exciting field after attending a lecture series on Marine Biology during my master’s course work in the subject of ‘Marine Microbial Biotechnology’ by Prof. Grant Burgess, at Department of Biotechnology, University of Madras. After reading pioneer works of Zubell and Austin in Marine Microbiology, I have decided to opt for this fascinating area for my PhD degree. I have published some popular science articles on Biological Oceanography as well.
I had a strong attachment toward learning how the nature and ecosystem works, and somehow I developed an aversion toward those anthropocentric scientific quests which is driven only by the material reason: 'what benefit do we get out of this' or 'how to exploit the resources for our betterment?' While on a volunteer internship ('Project Life-Scape', Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore), I was enjoying the job assigned to me, 'to take the census of' butterflies in the scenic Western Ghats, 5 km stretch across either side of my home. It was for the first time that I ever associated with such a talented ecologists like that of Harvard Professor: Madhav Gadgil who then helped me to 'abstract' each ecological concept into numerical form. At Bombay, I continued to work on environmental related issues as a Voluntary Scout and associated with Dr. Rachel Reuben, Honorary Secretary, Bombay Natural History Society.
While I was an employee at NIO, the position was such that the level of interaction in multicultural environment is crucial where situations of communication and teamwork often become an important part of the jobs. My experience on an international oceanographic research cruise in a Russian vessel (Alexander Academic Sidorenco) is particularly relevant to mention here. I was able to pick up elements of the Russian language and smatter with the majority of Russian crew members whose English vocabulary is extremely limited.
I would not only be the first one to carry out a graduate studentship in my own family, but also in my entire village. I have a great challenge and responsibility to educate the community of my locality and similar people around the world. My ultimate career goal is to bring the essence of modern research to the lay men who can't appreciate the beauty and importance of nature surrounding us, through the medium of popular science writing. Having published more than 20 articles in local languages, I feel it is my highest accolade that each of these articles enjoys a greater impact than the more specialized primary technical publications!
I feel that I am now mature enough to start a graduate studentship in an interdisciplinary field comprising mathematics, Biology and the marine sciences. I have always been in the zone of ocean and given a chance, I would love to continue this research and contribute to the academic environment and the world.