Biography:

Amitabh Joshi obtained a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Botany (1986) and M.Sc. in Genetics (1988) from Delhi University, India, and a Ph.D. in Genetics (1993) from Washington State University, Pullman, working with John N. Thompson and Michael E. Moody on variation in the outcomes of coevolution among competing species of fruitflies. During this time, he also did theoretical work on the cost of sexual reproduction and the evolution of extreme ecological specialization. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Laurence D. Mueller at University of California, Irvine (1994-96), primarily on adaptation to larval and adult crowding in fruitflies. In 1996, he joined the faculty of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore, India, where he is presently Professor and Chairman of the Evolutionary and Organismal Biology Unit. His current research interests are in life-history evolution and small population and metapopulation dynamics, and he carries out a combination of experimental evolution studies with fruitflies, and theoretical work using computer simulations. He is particularly interested in the evolution of developmental rates and rates of ageing, the role of circadian clocks in timing life-history events, and in the interplay of local dynamics and migrations patterns/rates in affecting global metapopulation dynamics.

Abstract: