Snigdha Konar

Affiliation: Ancient DNA laboratory

Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences

53 University Road

Lucknow - 226007

Uttar Pradesh, INDIA

ResearchGate Link-

During my second year of graduation, I participated in an exploration and collected plants from the hilly regions of the north-east (Lava, Lollegaon, Lataguri, and Kalimpong) and some local areas in Bengal, India, under the directorship of my college professors. During my final year of graduation, the department held a seminar competition based on their own research interests through PowerPoint presentations, and I won first place. My topic was "Sanjeevani Booti: The Myths and the Reality''. I also supervised my class project for the college science exhibition and actively participated in it. The model demonstrated how hard rock and soft music can affect plants, as the topic "Plants can respond to music too" suggests. We also ranked second in the college's description field. I also have experience in identifying, collecting, and excavating plant fossils. During my postgraduate studies, I participated in excavation as well as exploration of archaeological sites in West Bengal, India. My master's dissertation was on the topic "Rock Art of Central India'', which includes two Indian states: Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. I acquired the first position (gold medalist) from her department, which is archaeology, at the university during post-graduation. I was also awarded the prestigious "Bijan Bihari Dey Memorial Award'' and a scholarship to pursue higher education by the university. I also took a lot of archaeological courses between them to expand my expertise. In the year 2022, I qualified for a Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and eligibility for an Assistant Professor in the National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) conducted for December 2021 and June 2022 (a merged session) to do archaeological research under government scholarship. I also volunteered electronically at the Smithsonian Institution in the United States and the Australia Museum in Australia, where I transcribed museum books and herbarium sheets. I'm applying isotopes to explore the migration, mobility, sex, paleo food, paleo climate, and ecology of the Indus Valley Civilization for my PhD thesis. I am also involved in the project “Indica: rethinking our reliance on paddy rice through looking to past domestication and agricultural systems.”