I did my BSc in Geology (2007) and MSc in Applied Geology (2009) from Presidency College, Kolkata and did my PhD in Organic Geochemistry from IIT Bombay. I have worked as a DST Inspire Faculty at the Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, IISER Mohali. Currently I am employed as a lecturer on contract in IISER Mohali. The primary focus of my research is to decipher the ancient biota and palaeo-environments. In particular, I am interested in the organic molecular fossils (biomarkers) preserved in sediments for unravelling a plethora of geochemical information spanning a diverse range of biota from microbes to complex flora and fauna and across the entire geological time scale.
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I have worked on reconstruction of early life and palaeoenvironment and probing mass extinction event using organic geochemical techniques. Our work on a Gondwana Permian Triassic section showed the massive deforestation of coal-forming vegetation and a sharp decline in the vascular plant biodiversity during the transition from late Permian to Early Triassic and a forced restructuring of the wetland ecosystem at the beginning of Triassic. I am interested in a variety of topics in the Recent time scale (Holocene) and have applied organic geochemical techniques for palaeoclimatic studies such as understanding the altering dynamics of the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM). Further, I am also using organic geochemical techniques for the study of environmental pollutants such as plastic-derived phthalates and polyaromatic hydrocarbons.