I now have two avatars: Freelance science writer and Chief Editor, Research Media Services Division, Gubbi Labs.
As a freelance science writer, I write for primarily international publications: BBC Earth, New Scientist and The Scientist. I am also a correspondent for the Global Forest Reporting Network, an arm of the environment and conservation news website mongabay.com. I have previously written for the websites SciDev.Net, Nature India, India Bioscience; the magazines Current Conservation, Sanctuary & Saevus; and the newspaper The Hindu In School.
The Research Media Services Division of Gubbi Labs took off in an office space at the Entrepreneurship Centre, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in August 2014. We floated our first and flagship venture: the Science Media Centre at IISc. The startup was conceptualised by three co-founders — HS Sudhira, Madhurima Das and myself — all alumni from IISc, sharing a passion to improve the status of popular science communication in India. We have been focussing on improving the flow of information in one important channel — between institutions and the media.
BACKGROUND
M.A. Journalism (Science and Environmental). University of Lincoln, UK. Graduated January 2014.
Thesis. Journalistic portfolio: A compilation of popular articles on ecology in India.
PhD. Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Thesis submitted August 2012, graduated June 2013. Advisor: Praveen Karanth.
Thesis. Species-specific and Habitat Correlates of Butterfly Dispersal Ability: Exploring Dispersal Using Patterns of Population Genetic Structure.
M.Sc. Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Pondicherry University, Puducherry.
B.Sc. Life Sciences, St Xavier’s College, Mumbai.
Academic Publications [Google Scholar profile]
Sekar, Sandhya. “A meta‐analysis of the traits affecting dispersal ability in butterflies: can wingspan be used as a proxy?.” Journal of Animal Ecology 81.1 (2012): 174-184. Link.
Sekar, Sandhya, and Praveen Karanth. “Flying between sky islands: the effect of naturally fragmented habitat on butterfly population structure.” PloS one 8.8 (2013): e71573. Link.
Sekar, Sandhya, and K. Praveen Karanth. “Does size matter? Comparative population genetics of two butterflies with different wingspans.” Organisms Diversity & Evolution (2015): 1-9. Link.