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Dr. Himani Patel

Affiliation: Ancient DNA laboratory

Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences                 

53 University Road

Lucknow - 226007

Uttar Pradesh, INDIA

E-Mail: patelhim412@gmail.com

Google Scholar Link- https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Qp7het8AAAAJ&hl=en

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Ph.D: Botany (Awarded)

BSRS-SRF (21 January 2018- 20 June 2022) in Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences             

Thesis Title: “Early farming in prehistoric India: New insights into agronomy, genetics and subsistence strategies in North-Western and Central India”.

Centre of advanced study in botany

Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (221005)

 

Research Interest

  1. The emergence of agriculture has always been a central point of discussion in archaeology. India has very less representation in archaeobotanical study during Early Iron Age to early historic period and ancient genomics literature despite the wealth of archaeological samples in all over the country. This has invoked me to work on “Early farming in prehistoric India: New insights into agronomy, genetics and subsistence strategies in North-Western and Central India.” I analyze plant macro remains such as seeds and fruits to understand origin, diversification and diffusion of crops, palaeodiet, palaeoecology and culture-subsistence-climate relationships in pre- and proto-historic India.

  2. My research work comprises of five archaeological sites, utilizing various proxies viz. archaeobotany, Phytolith, as a main and common proxy from each site along with stable carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) isotope analysis on archaeobotanical remains and soil sediments and ancient DNA from the archaeological sites of north-western and central India.

  3. Antiquity of Rice

  4. I have a wider interest in human-environment interactions, including how societies have dealt with climate change (Palaeoclimate) and Palaeoecological, Palaeodiet and how climate drivers, such as greenhouse gases, have been produced through prehistoric human activities. I also ponder how long-term cultural traditions, such as cooking traditions, have shaped the evolution of crops and economies, and how cultural traditions can be understood through combining archaeological evidence with historical linguistics.

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Award & Achievements

  1. Awarded the Birbal Sahni Research fellowship at the BSIP, Lucknow from 2 Jan 2018.

  2. Received UKIERI Ph.D  student visiting fellowship award for 2 month at University of Cambridge, UK (2018-2020).

  3. Received NGBT 2018 student meeting and travel award in Jaipur.

  4. Awarded the outstanding poster Presentation in International Conference INABASDG-2018, BHU held on 20-21 March 2018.

  5. Awarded the Best oral Presentation in 3rd National conference EPSID-2018, KCMT, Bareilly.

  6. Certificate of Silver medel in Avantika International Talent rearch Essay Competition, Delhi.

 

Research Field Trips

  1. Field work, exploration and sample collection from Rithi Ranjana,Vidarbha Maharasahtra in 2018.

  2. Participated in archaeological excavation at the site at Phupgaon, Maharashtra during march 2019.

 

Research Publications

  1. Anil K. Pokharia, Himani Patel , Abhijit S. Ambekar……Agricultural adaptation and resilience through climatic shifts in semi-arid India: 2000 years of archaeobotanical evidence from Vadnagar, Gujarat. Quaternary Science Advances (DOI:10.1016/j.qsa.2023.100155)

  2. Ramesh Kumar Kushwaha , Samyukta Madhav Joshi, Renuka Bajaj, Anthati Mastan, Vinay Kumar, Himani Patel… : Copper and iron metal resistant rhizospheric bacteria boost the plant growth and bacoside A content in Bacopa monnieri under stress conditions. Functional Plant Biology 50(6) 482-496 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1071/FP22263)

  3. Himani Patel, Anil K. Pokharia, Nihil Das, Niraj Rai, Rajeshwar P. Sinha.  Rithi Ranjana: reconstructing crop economy based on archaeobotanical evidence and radiocarbon dates from an Early Iron Age site in Vidarbha region, Maharashtra, India, Current Science,Volume.120, 2021, DOI: 10.18520/cs/v120/i11/1728-1739

  4. Vasant Shinde, Vagheesh M. Narasimhan,Nadin Rohland, Nick Patterson,Niraj Rai, David Reich, Himani Patel…. An Ancient Harappan Genome Lacks Ancestry from Steppe Pastoralists or Iranian Farmers Cell. 179, no. 3 (2019): 729-735

  5. Pokharia, Anil K., Singh, P., Upadhyay, P., Kumar, Anoop, Singh, Upendra, Mishra, Neelam , Srivastava, A., Trivedi, A., Patel, Himani. Plant macroremains from Sarethi: An Early Historic site in Saryu region of Ganga Plain. The Palaeobotanist. 68 (2019): 125-137.

  6. Himani Patel, Amritpal Singh Chaddha, Sachin Kumar, Preety A. Trivedi, Anupam Sharma, Anil K. Pokharia, Rajeshwar P. Sinha, Preety A. Trivedi, Niraj Rai: Ancient DNA and chemical study of a megalithic human tooth remain and it’s associated filling from Central India. Journal Archaeometry (Revision submitted).

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Book Chapter

  1. Vinay Kumar , Vinukonda Rakesh Sharma, Himani Patel, Nisha Dinkar “An insight into current trends of pathogen identification in plants "Title of book- Phytobiomes: Current Insights and Future Vistas Springer Nature Singapore (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36248-5_14)

  2. Kushwaha, Ramesh Kumar, Vereena Rodrigues, Vinay Kumar, Himani Patel, Meenakshi Raina, and Deepak Kumar. "Soil Microbes-Medicinal Plants Interactions: Ecological Diversity and Future Prospect." In Plant Microbe Symbiosis, pp. 263-286. Springer, Cham, 2020 (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3151-4_6)

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Patent Journal

  1. Manlai Singh, Nisha Dinkar, Himani Patel…..Enhencing withanolides in Withania somnifera for therapeutic and anticancer applications using modern hydrochemical aquaponics culture (Accepted-2023)

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