Dr. Karthick Balasubramanian

Biography

His education includes: M.Sc in Environmental Science (Bharathidasan University) and Ph. D in Botany (University of Mysore).His lab explores diatoms for biofuel and other compounds for medical and environmental applications. He is experienced as Post Doctoral Fellow at North West University, Potchefstroom. South Africa (2013), Post Doctoral Fellow at University of Colorado at Boulder, USA (2011-2012) and Research Associate at Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (2011).

Research Interest

Diatoms are unicellular, microscopic algae of the class Bacillariophyceae and they thrive in freshwater and marine environment. Currently his lab focusing on evolution of freshwater diatoms in two ancient mountain systems, Western and Eastern Ghats of Peninsular India. Current research projects include studies of diversity of endemic diatoms from semiaquatic habitats of Western Ghats and phylogeny and biogeography of Gomphonemoid diatoms from Indian Peninsular. Much of his work is performed in the context of taxonomy and species response to environmental change, using approaches that span from classical taxonomy to landscape ecology, biogeography and phylogeny.Further they employ our expertise in diatom taxonomy and ecology to develop approaches for solving environmental problems, such as water pollution. They use diatoms as biomonitoring tool in Indian rivers to detect pollution levels. Diatoms satisfy all the conditions to qualify as suitable water quality indicators as they are simple, capable of quantifying changes in water quality and applicable over large geographic areas.