Meet the young herpetologist who is paving the way for more representation while bringing science to the masses.
As published on August 06, 2021.
When your editor asks you to prepare for an interview with one of India’s leading early-career herpetologists, what do you do? You read up on her research (pretending to understand some of it), check her social media accounts to learn about the causes that she is passionate about, read her articles and then jot down well-reasoned questions and go over them on the day of the interview. Or you throw caution to the wind and ask her the one thing that has been a constant puzzle for you – why herpetology?
Luckily for me, Ashwini Mohan was gracious enough to take this question in the right spirit, and, to my relief, responded first with a laugh and then by saying – “this is the one question that I get asked constantly.” She explained that the portrayal of reptiles in movies and mainstream media definitely has an impact on the way people perceive them. But she is working hard to change that notion every day, not because we must all simply get rid of our ophidiophobia, but so we can start to understand the vital roles reptiles play in various ecosystems.
Born and raised in Bangalore, Karnataka, Ashwini is currently pursuing a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship at the prestigious Natural History Museum, London. She recently completed her PhD from the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany, where she specialised in herpetology, comparative phylogenetics, population genetics and evolutionary biology. She has published numerous peer-reviewed papers on reptiles and other organisms in island and forest ecosystems, including identifying a new species of lanternfly that is endemic to the Andaman Islands and a rock-dwelling gecko from the Agasthyamalai Hills in the Western Ghats. She is an ardent voice for female representation in the field of herpetology as well as science in general.
In this interview, Ashwini talks about her journey, her research, being a ‘herper’ and encouraging more women across the country to join the tribe, and how social media has now become a valuable tool for science communication. Over to Ashwini Mohan.
Read the complete interview here. –> Ashwini Mohan Talks Geckos, Islands And Evolution