Indian Institute of Science Education & Research Archives

Ms. Sreelakshmy Thekkekara is a PhD candidate in the Department of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Thiruvananthapuram. Her doctoral research focuses on the development of cathode materials for high-performance sodium-ion batteries. She is passionate about innovations in energy storage devices and is actively seeking new methods to improve battery materials and discover new systems with enhanced electrochemical performance.

Sreelakshmy holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Vimala College, Thrissur, and a master’s degree in physics from the Central University of Kerala. She is a Prime Minister’s Research Fellow and began her PhD at the School of Physics, IISER, in August 2022.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow at the SLAC-Stanford Battery Center, National Accelerator Laboratory, Sreelakshmy is conducting scientific research focused on the fundamental studies of earth-abundant materials for cathodes used in sodium-ion batteries. This research area is crucial to advance sodium-ion battery technology, which is considered a promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries due to the abundance and lower cost of sodium compared to lithium. Her work will also involve understanding electrochemical processes and structural changes using various spectroscopy and imaging techniques, including electron, X-ray, and neutron methods. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, listening to music, and exploring new places to discover food and culture.

Dr. Richa Singh did her PhD in 2020 under the supervision of Dr. Manjari Jain at the Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER) Mohali, Punjab. Her thesis examines the effect of three important environmental factors (light, temperature and ambient noise) on the acoustic signaling of a nocturnal ensiferan insect, Acanthogryllus asiaticus. After her PhD, she moved to the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi , to monitor bird populations using a machine learning approach. She is currently working as a p roject s cientist at the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.

Dr. Singh is a recipient of a DST-Inspire Fellow ship and has qualified for the UGC-NET examination. She is an Executive Committee member of the Ethological Society of India and has published her research work in reputed international journals. She has won various travel grants to present her work on international platforms such as the International Bioacoustics Congress Travel grant award from University of Sussex, UK, Association for the Study of Animal Behavior Diversity travel grant award from University of Konstanz, Germany, DST International travel grant, Government of India and Animal Behavior Society Diversity travel grant from University of Illinois, Chicago. She secured third place in the 3MT (3-minute thesis) competition in Behavior Conference at University of Illinois, Chicago, in 2019. She got the best oral presentation awards (National Conference on Behavioral Ecology, Gujarat, 2017 and Young Ecologists Talk and Interact, Assam, 2017) and the best poster presentation awards (Conference on Insect Biodiversity Studies, Kerala, 2016 and National Symposium on Behavioural Ecology, Varanasi, 2014).

Frog-biting mosquitoes and their host are confronted with unprecedented growing anthropogenic noise levels. It is unknown how such novel acoustic conditions will affect mosquitoes in detecting, recognizing, and localizing their hosts. As a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Fellow , Dr. Singh will use a neuroethological approach to understand the behavioral responses and underlying mechanisms of organisms under novel noisy conditions. In particular, her research will shed light on the effect of anthropogenic changes on vector-host interactions.